Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara, shown discussing the Epstein files outside the U.S. Capitol last November, called for Supreme Court reforms Sunday during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s latest move to gut the Voting Rights Act, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara, says his party needs to run on reforming the court in upcoming elections.
“We are not speaking up loudly enough, strongly enough against a court that is really rolling back civil rights,” he told journalist Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning. “The Democratic Party needs to run against this court.”
Khanna’s comments come after a week that has seen setbacks for both parties. Democrats’ wounds were self-inflicted, after an embarrassing rollout of a draft postmortem on the party’s crushing defeat in the 2024 presidential election. Republicans have been encumbered by several moves by unpopular President Donald Trump, including skyrocketing prices related to his war in Iran and bipartisan anger over a $1.776 billion fund that appears designed to pay his political allies who have faced criminal prosecution. A recent poll by the Associated Press found just 37% of Americans approve of how he’s handling his presidency.
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But in the long run, the Supreme Court’s ruling, which struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana and eviscerated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, paved the way for Republicans to eliminate other majority-Black districts across the South. The ruling is already allowing Republicans to make some districts more favorable to their candidates in this year’s midterms and has the potential to dramatically tip the congressional map in their favor in 2028.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara, says Democrats should seize on the Supreme Court’s decision on on voting rights to create term limits for justices.
It’s the latest in a series of decisions by the Supreme Court, which comprises six conservatives appointed by Republican presidents and three liberals appointed by Democratic presidents, that are likely to benefit Republicans.
Khanna said his party should seize on that decision and advocate for creating term limits for Supreme Court justices, giving each president two appointees to the court and expanding the court from nine to 13 justices. Such extensive reform has faced opposition from establishment Democrats. Many legal scholars say imposing term limits would require an amendment to the Constitution.
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Khanna dismissed calls for Ken Martin, the leader of the Democratic National Committee, to resign, but said the party needs to take a different approach to win elections.
“We do need to recognize that the status quo has failed, that this is a system that has created massive inequality, that the economy is lopsided and unfair,” he said. “Too often we’ve run status quo establishment candidates who have been unwilling to call out an economic and political system that has failed.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., shown Tuesday during an election night watch party after losing the Republican Party’s nomination, cited his push for release of the Epstein files for the president’s decision to back a GOP challenger in the race.
Khanna pointed to his work, alongside Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, to force the release of the Justice Department’s files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a victory that has put the president on his back foot. Both Khanna and Massie cited that effort as a reason Trump was motivated to back a Republican challenger to Massie in his Kentucky district.
Trump’s decision to back a primary challenger to a sitting congressman from his own party succeeded Tuesday, when Massie lost his bid for reelection. But the move has already started to backfire on Trump.
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Another Republican who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, joined Democrats last week in backing a measure to rein in Trump’s power to wage war on Iran. A similar measure backed by Massie looked likely to pass in the House on Thursday if Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had not canceled the vote.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., shown greeting supporters at a campaign stop this month, has joined Democrats in backing a measure to rein in the president’s power to wage war on Iran.
And Massie, who no longer has an incentive to align himself with Trump, has already promised to continue pushing the administration to release more Epstein files during the time remaining in his term.
“For me, it was completely worth it,” Massie told Welker on Sunday when she asked whether he regretted opposing the president. “I’ve got seven more months to keep going against the grain, which means voting for principles and for people over party.”
