Collins says Biden’s handling of SCOTUS vacancy has been 'clumsy at best'

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she welcomes diversity on the Supreme Court but Biden's handling of replacing retiring Justice Stephen Breyer has so far been "clumsy."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said while she welcomes diversity on the Supreme Court, President Joe Biden's handling of replacing retiring Justice Stephen Breyer so far "has been clumsy at best."

The president has pledged to appoint the first-ever Black woman to the high court, possibly eyeing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who garnered bipartisan support for her federal court nomination, including from Collins, who was one of three Senate Republicans who approved her confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in June 2021.

"George, I would welcome the appointment of a Black female to the court," the Republican senator told ABC "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. "I believe that diversity benefits the Supreme Court. But the way that the president has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best. It adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be."

Stephanopoulos pressed: "You say that it's clumsy. But isn’t, as Senator Durbin pointed out, isn't it exactly what Senator Reagan did when he said he would appoint a woman to the Supreme Court? Isn't it exactly what President Trump did when he said he would appoint a woman to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg?"