First lady Jill Biden said she found the leaked draft majority opinion indicating that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade “shocking.”
In the document, Justice Samuel Alito argues that the ruling that guaranteed Americans’ right to abortion “was egregiously wrong from the start.”
“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” Alito wrote.
Biden emphasized the importance of people turning out to vote, noting that elections directly affect the composition of the Supreme Court.
“The president matters. The election of the president matters, because he’s the one who puts the justices on the court,” she told MSNBC’s Symone Sanders, per a preview of an interview that is set to air in full on Saturday. “But if this goes to the state level, our state legislators are going to matter, too. So people have to get involved.”
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, told CBS’s Norah O’Donnell this week that she had warned Americans about what was at stake in that election.
“I could see that the man I was running against would literally do anything to get the votes of the extreme faction of the Republican Party, who were willing to totally upend precedent and deny women their rights,” Clinton said in an interview that aired Thursday, referring to the fact that Donald Trump campaigned on the promise that he would appoint conservative justices who would overturn Roe.
“But, you know, it’s hard to warn in the abstract, and I think a lot of people would say, ‘Well, that’ll never happen,’” Clinton added.
Biden is the first guest to appear on Sanders’ new show “Symone,” which premieres on MSNBC this weekend. Sanders, who previously served as a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris and a senior adviser on Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, had pursued the White House press secretary role, according to The Washington Post.
The president announced Thursday that he had selected Karine Jean-Pierre to replace Jen Psaki as press secretary when Psaki leaves later this month, reportedly for a job at MSNBC. Jean-Pierre will make history as the first Black woman and the first openly gay person to hold the position.