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Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun Takes Sen. Ted Cruz To Task For Comments About President Biden Pledging To Nominate A Black Woman To The Supreme Court

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Former Illinois U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun on Tuesday took U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to task – calling some recent comments he made an insult to Black women.

As reported by BET, Cruz called President Joe Biden's pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court "offensive" and "insulting."

On a Sunday episode of his podcast, "Verdict with Ted Cruz," the senator said the pledge indicates that President Biden "give a damn" about a majority of the country, BET reported.

"The fact that he's willing to make a promise at the outset, that it must be a Black woman, I've got to say that's offensive. You know, you know Black women are what, 6 percent of the US population? He's saying to 94 percent of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you, you are ineligible.'" Cruz said in the podcast.

Cruz went on: "And he's also saying – it's actually an insult to Black women. If he came and said, 'I'm going to put the best jurist on the court,' and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a Black woman, he could credibly say, 'OK I'm nominating the person who's most qualified.' He's not even pretending to say that. He's saying: 'If you're a white guy, tough luck. If you're a white woman, tough luck. You don't qualify.'"

Sen. Moseley Braun did not hold back Tuesday when asked how she felt about those comments.

"You know, he's just spouting nonsense. Of the 115 Supreme Court justices that we've had in the history of this country, 108 have been white males. So, you know, what he's upset about is really mysterious and stupid," Moseley Braun said. "So now we have a chance to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court – and it's not just because she's Black. It's because she will have had a series of life experiences that will inform the decisions of the court – in the same way, hopefully, that Thurgood Marshall was able to influence the Warren court."

It was last week when President Biden announced he would nominate the best and most qualified candidate – and that person, he said, would be a Black woman.

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