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Former Vice President Kamala Harris called for institutional changes to the Supreme Court and the Electoral College during an interview Tuesday, calling for more justices on the highest court in the nation.
“The work that we can do about winning back the House and the Senate is going to be on a number of things. For example, I believe that we need to expand the Supreme Court. We need more justices on the Supreme Court so that we can have a court that actually reinforces the spirit and principles behind the Constitution of the United States,” Harris told podcast host Keke Palmer on her “Baby, This is Keke Palmer” podcast.
“I believe that we should be pushing for what is possible around changing the Electoral College. Right?
“It’s about, the popular vote has to matter, right? You know, all the things that make people feel, like, overwhelmed, and does their vote matter? We have, you know, listen, if the folks there want it, we should be pushing for statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C., right? These are some of the things that are structural that we need to do, but we need to reestablish affordable child care,” Harris added.
Harris lost both the Electoral College and the popular vote to President Donald Trump in 2024. She told Palmer she still remains undecided about a 2028 presidential run.
Y. David Scharf, chairman of Morrison Cohen LLP and head of its government strategies & controversies practice, told Fox News Digital that Harris’ proposed changes could set a “dangerous precedent.”
“Kamala Harris says she wants to defend democracy, but her solution is to rewrite its rules when Democrats don’t like the results. That’s a dangerous precedent,” he said. “Nine justices have been the number since 1869. FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court, and even his own party pushed back. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself warned that expanding the court would make it look partisan.
“The Electoral College is written into the Constitution. Eliminating it requires a constitutional amendment, not a Democratic majority in Congress. You don’t get to change the referee because you don’t like the calls. Harris may think this is a winning message for the Democratic base, but it’s a much tougher sell to the independent and swing voters her party needs.”
The former VP also spoke about the midterm elections during the interview.
“On the first Tuesday in November, the midterms are going to happen,” Harris said. “And our ability to put people in Congress who will say no, when they do things like cut $1 trillion out of Medicaid will be powerful and affect people right away.
“Our ability to put people in Congress who will say enough of the corruption, enough of ending the funding for research on issues like fibroids, which they have done under the guise of attacking DEI, can be stopped. There are things that are not only about what will be helpful, but also stopping what is harmful, that we can do right away with these midterm elections.”
Her comments come days after her 2024 vice presidential running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, warned of a reckoning among Democrats if the party fails to deliver on promises should they take back Congress and potentially the presidency in 2028.
Harris was called out by Democratic advisors Tuesday for failing to reinvent herself politically as she weighs another White House run, Politico reported.
The report, based on interviews with nearly 20 California-based Democratic donors and strategists, highlighted growing skepticism among some party insiders about Harris’ political future and whether she has done enough to distinguish herself from her unsuccessful 2024 campaign.
Longtime Democratic strategist Doug Herman, a veteran of former President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, told Politico that Harris “totally blew it. … She hasn’t gotten into the mix.”
Former Gov. Jim Hodges of South Carolina, the leadoff state in the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nominating calendar, told the outlet, “I don’t see anything different myself. It seems like more of the same to me.”
Veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, an outside advisor to Harris, pushed back against the criticism highlighted in a new Politico report and called the story “infuriating” in a previous statement to Fox News Digital.
“How can you state that she hasn’t done anything new or groundbreaking or talked about new initiatives or policies and then lay out exactly those policies — like proposing an expanded Supreme Court, lowering the voting age to 16, making D.C. and Puerto Rico states. Those are pretty groundbreaking policies,” Cardona told Fox News Digital, as she pointed to some of Harris’ moves since the end of former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.