Who should President Donald Trump have nominated to fill retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy’s soon-to-be vacant spot on the Supreme Court?
Depends who you ask, of course. But if you ask Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), he’ll heavily imply ― if not state outright ― that it should be a white person.
We know this because Cramer boasted last Friday in an interview with North Dakota’s KTGO-AM that Trump had sought his opinion on the matter. Cramer told “Morning Lowdown” host Dennis Lindahl that he was with Trump for a rally in North Dakota the day Kennedy announced his retirement, and the president had asked for his advice.
“It was an exciting day to be with the president, and he asked right out front, he said, ‘Do you have any preferences?’” Cramer recalled. “I said my only preference would be don’t succumb to the pressure to make this some sort of an affirmative action pick.”
“I said my only preference would be don’t succumb to the pressure to make this some sort of an affirmative action pick.”
- Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.)
“Make sure you pick a good, solid conservative and cement this 5-4 conservative majority that we have, based on a judge’s or a lawyer’s judicial demeanor and philosophy,” he added.
The lawmaker also shared that he was pulling for federal appellate judge Amy Coney Barrett to win the nomination, which ended up going to Brett Kavanaugh instead.
In the Supreme Court’s 228-year history, 107 of the 113 justices have been white men. Of the six who weren’t, three were white women, and three were people of color.
Cramer’s office told HuffPost the lawmaker was traveling Tuesday and unavailable to clarify his remarks.