‘I can’t think of a better person’: Graham boosts South Carolina’s Childs for SCOTUS seat

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday broke with several of his Republican colleagues by seemingly expressing support for President Joe Biden’s pledge to nominate the first-ever Black woman to the Supreme Court.

In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Graham (R-S.C.) — a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee — also appeared to endorse J. Michelle Childs, a District Court judge in his home state of South Carolina, for the seat held by the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

“Put me in the camp of making sure the court and other institutions look like America,” Graham said. “You know, we make a real effort as Republicans to recruit women and people of color to make the party look more like America.”

Senate Republicans and conservative commentators have repeatedly criticized Biden for committing to selecting a Black woman to fill Breyer’s seat, with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) suggesting in a local radio interview Friday that whomever the president picks will be a “beneficiary” of affirmative action.

But Graham distanced himself from Wicker’s remarks on Sunday, saying, “Affirmative action is picking somebody not as well qualified for past wrongs. Michelle Childs is incredibly qualified. There is no affirmative action component if you pick her.”

Graham also defended Biden’s pledge to nominate a Black woman, saying it was no different than then-President Ronald Reagan’s promising to nominate the nation’s first female justice in 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor.

“President Reagan said, running for office, that he wanted to put the first female on the court,” Graham said. “Whether you like it or not, Joe Biden said, ‘I’m going to pick an African American woman to serve on the Supreme Court.’ I believe there are plenty of qualified African American women, conservative and liberal, that could go onto the court.”

“In the history of our country,” Graham continued, “we've only had five women serve and two African American men. So let's make the court more like America. But qualifications have to be the biggest consideration, and as to Michelle Childs, I think she’s qualified by every measure.”

Graham stopped short of committing to voting in favor of Childs’ potential nomination, however, but said, “I think I made it pretty clear that I’m a big admirer of Judge Childs.”