Adding more Supreme Court justices may be the way to depoliticize the system, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday, while outlining some of his policy stands.
"The question isn't just conservative," Buttigieg, who is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "The question is, how do we structure it in a way that it's not going to be an apocalyptic, ideological battle every time there's a vacancy."
He said he's interested in a potential model in which there would be 15 justices, if it can be done in a way to depoliticize the high court, but if it's just a matter of adding people, "what's to stop conservatives from doing the same thing again?"
Buttigieg was definitive when it comes to calls for eliminating the Electoral College, however, saying "absolutely. It has to go."
He also said he supports a version of "Medicare for all" that would allow people to enroll in the system, if they wish.
"Any politician who allows that phrase to escape their lips must have some account on how to get there," said Buttigieg. "I'm talking about a pathway I would call Medicare for all who want it...let people buy in."
He also discussed the growing call among some candidates for slavery reparations, saying he has not seen a proposal that allows for a cash transfer that would be fair.
"I absolutely believe that we need to have some kind of accounting for the persistent racial inequalities that are there today by design because of past and present racism," Buttigieg said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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