Former Acting Solicitor General on the Supreme Court Vacancy

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, I want to ask you, in light of what former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has tweeted yesterday — and I’m going to read it to you in a second, but it goes to whether the court is actually representative of America. He tweeted: “A sixth GOP justice nominated by an impeached president, who lost the popular vote by three million, confirmed by GOP senators representing 15 million fewer Americans than their Democratic colleagues, after Obama’s pick couldn’t even get a vote. When I say the system is rigged, this is what I mean.” So, do you think the system is rigged? And how representative are the justices of America and Americans? And I talk also, in this moment of justice that’s being demanded of for black Americans, for African- Americans.

NEAL KATYAL, FORMER ACTING U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: Yes, I don’t think that you can look at, if President Trump gets his nominee through, and you have 15 of 19 justices appointed by one party, that could be seen as representative of where the country is. I think the country’s evenly split. And the Supreme Court composition has not been evenly split at all. And I think Secretary Reich is right to point to what he’s — what the Republicans are doing, which is trying to disenfranchise voters in state after state in all sorts of things, mail-in ballots, this, that and the other, any sort of rubric they can to try and bolster their voting power at the polls and now at the U.S. Supreme Court. So there is a direct relationship between these things. And, ultimately, I think these folks are afraid of democracy. They’re afraid of things like the Voting Rights Act, which is why they want their justices to strike it down. And it’s a sad — it’s a sad moment. I think we will get past it. I think that there’s nothing more fundamental than the — for Americans than the right to vote. And I think we will ultimately see that for what it is, and there will be a new birth of American democracy, but I do think it’s going to take a lot of effort.

AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you this final question. I’m going to play by a bite — a little sound bite from President Trump, who says why they need to fill this seat before the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need nine justices. You need that. With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they’re sending, it’s a scam. It’s a hoax. Everybody knows that. And the Democrats know better than anybody else. So, you’re going to need nine justices up there. I think it’s going to be very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So, I mean, we always have to say no evidence of mail fraud. This is the president’s rallying cry, but it’s not based in reality. However, what do you expect to unfold on election night? And what role, given what we saw in Bush vs. Gore in 2000, what could — how could the Supreme Court become embroiled?

KATYAL: Well, President Trump has said a lot of outrageous things in his four years and before he became president, but what he just said, what you just played is among the most outrageous.