Kamala Harris Tells New Hampshire Crowd Democrats Must Expand the Supreme Court and ‘Be Ruthless’ If They Win (VIDEO)

Former Vice President Kamala Harris told a New Hampshire audience that expanding the Supreme Court to 13 justices and taking a hard look at the Electoral College must be “first priorities” for Democrats if they regain power, and that the party needs to “be ruthless” to get it done.

Speaking during a live taping of the “My Body. My Pod.” podcast with Mini Timmaraju of Reproductive Freedom for All in Manchester on Saturday while campaigning for Senate nominee Chris Pappas, Harris acknowledged her proposals would be “controversial coming from me” before laying them out.

“We have to expand the Supreme Court. Let’s expand it to 13 because we have 13 circuit courts,” she said, according to reporting by NH Journal.

Harris continued, “We also need to take a critical look at the Electoral College, fight for statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C. We need to overturn Citizens United. These have to be first priorities.”

To achieve them, she added, “We have to be ruthless.”

Harris explained that by ruthless she meant having “the backbone to actually act on accountability and consequence, because a harshly worded letter ain’t gonna get it.”

WATCH:

The remarks clearly preview what Harris and the Democrats intend to do if they win back the House and Senate.

Court packing, installing additional justices to shift the current 6-3 conservative majority, has been a priority for Harris since the Court shifted under President Donald Trump’s appointments.

Congress sets the Court’s size by statute. It has been fixed at nine since 1869.

Expanding the size will require only a simple majority if Democrats control both chambers and the White House, or enough Senate votes to overcome a filibuster.

Critics, including some Democrats, have long warned that the move would turn the Court into a permanent political prize and erase more than 150 years of stability.

Pappas himself has said he does not support expansion, calling it a “never-ending tug-of-war,” though he voted against a constitutional amendment to lock the number at nine.

Harris’ call to “reexamine the Electoral College” is another longstanding Democrat priority that would effectively remove small and rural states from having any sway in presidential elections.

She has repeatedly said the popular vote “has to matter.”

Changing or abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, a higher bar than court packing, but statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico could be accomplished by statute and would add reliably Democratic Senate seats and electoral votes.

Overturning Citizens United, the 2010 decision that treated independent political spending as protected speech, would likewise require either a new Court majority or a constitutional amendment.

In a separate interview around the same time with MeidasTouch’s Aaron Parnas, Harris advised Democrats against pursuing a third impeachment of President Trump if they retake the House, saying the votes for conviction do not exist in the Senate and that limited resources should instead go to investigations and “accountability.”

Harris again used the word “ruthless,” and said Democrats should be “uncompromising” about restoring Medicaid cuts and other priorities rather than “being genteel about the relationships.”

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