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Former Vice President Kamala Harris wants to expand the Supreme Court.
This is a really horrible idea.
FDR, at the peak of his popularity, after winning his first re-election, tried it and was handed his head.
The reason for his effort, in 1937, to have up to 15 justices was to overcome conservative opposition to his storm of New Deal programs.
HARRIS’ ‘NON-BAD BRAINSTORM’ FOR DEMS INCLUDES BAKING SCOTUS AND ELIMINATING ELECTORAL COLLEGE
Former Vice President Kamala Harris has suggested expanding the Supreme Court, abolishing the Electoral College, and statehood for Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. (Matías J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Sound familiar?
Even some Democrats thought at the time that this would fatally undermine the independence of the judiciary.
Congress refused to pass the bill, even though Roosevelt enjoyed a large Democratic majority.
HARRIS LABELED ‘INSTITUTIONAL ARSONIST’ FOR PLAN TO FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORM SCOTUS AND THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
But the Supreme Court, perhaps under pressure, then began to defend important New Deal programs launched after the Great Depression.
Harris said he wanted to “invite ideas,” such as packing up SCOTUS and leaving a movement group. Their goal: “Neutralize this red state deception.”
In a call with the liberal group Emerge, the former vice president also said they should consider the Electoral College, as well as statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico, both efforts that would help Democrats.
Harris’ ideas date back to the days when President Franklin D. Roosevelt exercised tight control over the country’s body politic. (New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Harris, who became the Democratic nominee when Joe Biden dropped out, lost all seven swing states to Donald Trump in 2024. She was extraordinarily cautious during her 107-day race, spending the first third refusing to speak to the media.
Now she is acting more and more like a candidate, perhaps emboldened by Trump’s unpopularity over the Iran war and other issues.
House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Harris of a “dangerous tactic” and said, “You don’t blow up the system when you lose.”
DEMOCRATS AVOID QUESTIONS ABOUT WHETHER HARRIS SHOULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2028
The reason most keep politicians from messing with the court, the Electoral College, or the Senate filibuster is fear. They have dark visions that the same unchecked powers will be used against them when they no longer control the White House or Congress. Republicans worry they won’t be able to stop an all-out liberal agenda, starting with national health insurance, when they are the recipients.
One of Harris’ many problems during the campaign was that she couldn’t separate herself from Biden, and she told “The View” that she “can’t think of anything” about what she would have done differently.
Meanwhile, the former president has kept an extraordinarily low profile. Democrats have basically left behind Biden, who is battling cancer.
Even during his time in the White House, Trump attracted more media attention as he fought four criminal investigations. This was in part because Biden isolated himself from the press to hide his serious mental deterioration.
In fact, the person who mentions Biden most frequently, both in speeches and online, is Trump, even when the topic has nothing to do with his predecessor.
When asked by Fox’s Bret Baier if Xi Jinping liked the fact that he has not yet approved arms sales to Taiwan, Trump said:
“I would say ‘like’ is perhaps too strong a word because he believes he could do it by just signing my signature, unlike Biden who couldn’t sign his signature.”
LIZ PEEK: WHAT KAMALA HARRIS BUZZ TELLS US. READ BETWEEN THE LINES, AMERICA
As for Democrats, they still have a deep affection for former President Barack Obama, who has become the party’s most prominent Trump foe.
“We did it,” Obama said of Iran on one of Stephen Colbert’s latest shows, “without firing a missile. We took out 97% of its enriched uranium… and we didn’t have to kill a bunch of people or close the Strait of Hormuz.”
When Colbert jokingly suggested that he himself would run for president, Obama said the bar had already been lowered.
Trump – who always refers to him as “Barack Hussein Obama,” for obvious reasons – has responded forcefully.
Unsurprisingly, President Donald Trump has responded strongly following attacks by former President Barack Obama. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Trump shared a former adviser’s post that “there is now incontrovertible evidence that he was the spearhead of a seditious conspiracy to subvert the will of the American people and overthrow the United States government in 2016.”
The president added: “I hope they arrest him before the grand opening of his war bunker on the south side of Chicago,” referring to Obama’s presidential library.
In another post, Trump called Obama “the most DEMONIC FORCE in American politics in decades.”
Many Democrats, led by California Governor Gavin Newsom, will fight Harris for the 2028 nomination. This will be the first time in 16 years that Trump’s name will not appear on the presidential ballot.
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These polls are ridiculously early, given past campaign seasons in which those with high name ID quickly disappeared once the action got underway.
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If Kamala Harris is smart, she’ll abandon the idea of packing the Supreme Court. You can say it was just a trial balloon, one that quickly burst when FDR attempted such a plan 89 years ago.