Faun
Diamond Member
- Nov 14, 2011
- 123,612
- 79,099
Uh, no, if that were to happen, Patrick Leahy would be the tie breaker, should there be a tie in the Senate.They don't care if Harris is worse or not. If Harris ever becomes president then the Democrats lose the tie-breaking vote in the Senate for as long as it takes to nominate AND CONFIRM a new VP. And in order to do that they'll need at least one Repub to vote with them.
I highly doubt that a sitting president can use a recess appointment to bypass congressional approval to confirm his nominee for the vacant VP office. Section 2 of the 25th Amendment requires a confirmation in the House and the Senate by a majority vote. I do not believe the SCOTUS would permit Kamala Harris to nominate her own VP and also confirm that nominee via a recess appointment. I don't believe a Supreme Court justice can be appointed and confirmed that way either, otherwise Obama would have done so and we'd have Merrick Garland on the SCOTUS bench.
And then there's this: once Biden resigns or leaves office and Kamala Harris is sworn in as president, she can nominate whoever she wants to as her pick for the VP job, BUT - at that point she cannot cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. And no one else can either unless and until someone is nominated and confirmed by the Congress. SO - the Senate has to vote to go into recess and the GOP could block that. The GOP would not be in control of the Senate, but neither would the democrats.