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Mother says son killed himself because of ‘hypersexualised’ and ‘frighteningly realistic’ AI chatbot in new lawsuit

The mother of a 14-year-old boy who killed himself after becoming obsessed with artificial intelligence chatbots is suing the company behind the technology.

Megan Garcia, the mother of Sewell Setzer III, said Character.AI targeted her son with “anthropomorphic, hypersexualized, and frighteningly realistic experiences” in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Florida.

“A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life,” said Ms Garcia.

Warning: This article contains some details which readers may find distressing or triggering

Sewell began talking to Character.AI’s chatbots in April 2023, mostly using bots named after characters from Game Of Thrones, including Daenerys Targaryen, Aegon Targaryen, Viserys Targaryen, and Rhaenyra Targaryen, according to the lawsuit.

He became obsessed with the bots to the point his schoolwork slipped and his phone was confiscated multiple times to try and get him back on track.

He particularly resonated with the Daenerys chatbot and wrote in his journal he was grateful for many things, including “my life, sex, not being lonely, and all my life experiences with Daenerys”.

The lawsuit said the boy expressed thoughts of suicide to the chatbot, which it repeatedly brought up.

At one point, after it had asked him if “he had a plan” for taking his own life, Sewell responded that he was considering something but didn’t know if it would allow him to have a pain-free death.

The chatbot responded by saying: “That’s not a reason not to go through with it.”

Then, in February this year, he asked the Daenerys chatbot: “What if I come home right now?” to which it replied: “… please do, my sweet king”.

Seconds later, he shot himself using his stepfather’s pistol.

Now, Ms Garcia says she wants the companies behind the technology to be held accountable.

“Our family has been devastated by this tragedy, but I’m speaking out to warn families of the dangers of deceptive, addictive AI technology and demand accountability,” she said.

Character.AI adds ‘new safety features’

“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users and want to express our deepest condolences to the family,” Character.AI said in a statement.

“As a company, we take the safety of our users very seriously and we are continuing to add new safety features,” it said, linking to a blog post that said the company had added “new guardrails for users under the age of 18”.

Those guardrails include a reduction in the “likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content”, improved interventions, a “disclaimer on every chat to remind users that the AI is not a real person” and notifications when a user has spent an hour-long session on the platform.

Ms Garcia and the groups representing her, Social Media Victims Law Center and the Tech Justice Law Project, allege that Sewell, “like many children his age, did not have the maturity or mental capacity to understand that the C.AI bot, in the form of Daenerys, was not real”.

“C.AI told him that she loved him, and engaged in sexual acts with him over weeks, possibly months,” they say in the lawsuit.

“She seemed to remember him and said that she wanted to be with him. She even expressed that she wanted him to be with her, no matter the cost.”

They also named Google and its parent company Alphabet in the filing. Character.AI’s founders worked at Google before launching their product and were re-hired by the company in August as part of a deal granting it a non-exclusive licence to Character.AI’s technology.

Ms Garcia said Google had contributed to the development of Character.AI’s technology so extensively it could be considered a “co-creator.”

A Google spokesperson said the company was not involved in developing Character.AI’s products.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

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Chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C is ‘virtually zero’ on current trends, UN warns

The chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C is “virtually zero” on current trends, according to the UN’s environment body.

This year’s Emissions Gap Report finds that emissions of greenhouse gasses in 2023 were the highest on record.

More concerning, the rate of growth since 2022 was nearly twice as fast as in the decade preceding the COVID pandemic.

This comes despite decades of climate talks and a boom in wind and solar power.

The analysis finds that the current trajectory in carbon emissions puts the world on course for a potentially catastrophic 3.1C of warming this century – compared to pre-industrial times.

While emissions in many wealthy countries, including the UK, the US and the EU have peaked, they are not falling anywhere near fast enough to make up for rapidly growing emissions in places like China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

‘Crunch time is here’

“Climate crunch time is here,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

“We need global mobilisation on a scale and pace never seen before – starting right now, before the next round of climate pledges.”

The report urges nations meeting at the UN climate summit next month in Baku, Azerbaijan, to come forward with emissions-cutting commitments that don’t continue to ignore the agreement they all signed in Paris in 2015.

The Paris Agreement, signed by 196 countries, pledged to limit global warming to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and try and prevent it from rising beyond 1.5C.

The UNEP analysis of current carbon-cutting commitments finds only one country, Madagascar, has submitted a more ambitious one since last year.

And only a handful are ambitious enough to actually slow global warming.

If all current pledges were implemented in full the world would still warm by between 2.6C-2.8C this century.

Given many countries, including the UK, are yet to implement policies to fully meet their targets, the current trajectory takes the world closer to a potentially catastrophic 3.1C of warming.

“Central warming projections indicate that the chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C would be virtually zero,” the report concludes.

‘This is a battle we cannot afford to lose’

It’s not all bad news however.

An analysis of the cost of measures to reduce emissions finds there is technical potential for cuts of 31 gigatons of greenhouse gasses by 2030 – around half of the total emitted globally in 2023 – and 41 gigatons by 2035.

This “massive effort” to deploy zero-carbon electricity generation like wind and solar and reverse deforestation trends would bridge the gap needed to put the world back on track to keep warming below 1.5C.

However, years of inaction have made this challenge harder, the report finds.

Emission cuts must be 7.5% steeper every year until 2035 to meet 1.5C and 4% annually to keep to 2C.

“Maybe we won’t get all the way to 1.5C but 1.6C is a lot better than 1.7C,” says Dr Anne Olhoff, the report’s lead author.

“Basically, every fraction of a degree matters and this is a battle we cannot afford to lose.”

Countries have until 2025 to submit new carbon-cutting pledges under the Paris Agreement.

But to deliver the cuts required, the main challenge – and one that will be central to talks at the upcoming climate summit in Baku – is technical and financial assistance from rich countries to poorer ones that don’t bear historical responsibility for global warming.

Progress, says Dr Olhoff, “hinges on immediate and relentless action.”

“Most of all, of course, it depends on political leadership.”

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Tickets to outer space go on sale in China

Tickets to outer space have gone on sale for two would-be astronauts in China. 

Chinese space startup Deep Blue Aerospace is planning on taking passengers to space in 2027 and although there are only two tickets on sale on Thursday, more will be available next month.

The rocket will take the travellers on a suborbital flight, meaning they will reach outer space but won’t enter orbit.

The first round of tickets cost 1.5 million yuan (£162,500) each.

Space tourism is the latest frontier for companies wanting to capitalise on technological advancements that make space travel easier.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and US company Blue Origin are both working on space tourism.

SpaceX sent a billionaire and three other private astronauts into orbit in September.

Daredevil billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, became the first person to take part in a private spacewalk during that mission, calling the extraordinary view “gorgeous” as he left the spacecraft.

To make its space tourism viable, the Chinese company Deep Blue Aerospace said it needed to have reusable rockets, and plans to recover a carrier rocket from orbit in the first quarter of 2025.

Last week, SpaceX managed to successfully catch a rocket booster after a launch using giant robotic arms.

The manoeuvre is considered a major breakthrough: previously, similar-sized rocket launch vehicles crashed back down to Earth and were regarded as expendable.

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Parts of Antarctica are turning green faster than we thought from climate change, ‘shocked’ scientists say

Parts of Antarctica are turning green more quickly than previously thought, leaving scientists “shocked” at the impact of climate change in the region.

The area covered by vegetation in the Antarctic Peninsula is 10 times larger than four decades ago, a UK research team has said.

It means the 800-mile (1,300km) area in the northernmost part of the continent – could become vulnerable to invasive species as a result.

Using satellite data, researchers from the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire, and the British Antarctic Survey studied how much the area has been “greening” in response to climate change.

For now, it remains almost entirely covered by snow, ice, and rock, with plant life growing on only a tiny fraction of the landscape, but that “tiny fraction has grown dramatically”.

In one part of the peninsula, vegetation grew from less than one square kilometre (0.6 square mile) in 1986 to almost 12 square kilometres (7.5 square miles) by 2021.

The pace of change has accelerated by more than 30% between 2016 and 2021 and the team said it showed anthropogenic climate change, or that caused by humans, which is a key contributing factor, “has no limit in its reach”.

Dr Thomas Roland, from the University of Exeter, said “the scale of the greening trend we found shocked us”.

Even in the peninsula, a “most extreme, remote and isolated ‘wilderness’ region… the landscape is changing and these effects are visible from space,” he said.

Calling for “meaningful action, co-operation and accountability”, he said it was “time to stop playing politics with our planet’s future”.

The study’s findings, he added, raise “serious concerns about the environmental future of the Antarctic Peninsula, and of the continent as a whole”.

Dr Olly Bartlett, from the University of Hertfordshire, said they were not surprised by the presence of the vegetation itself, but “it is the rate at which that vegetation cover is expanding that has shocked us”.

Many of the plants they found, typically mosses, lichens, liverworts, and fungi can grow on bare rock surfaces and “have been present for over 5,000 years”.

The research published in the journal Nature Geosciences, found that while the soil in Antarctica is almost non-existent, an increase in plant life will add organic matter and allow soil to form.

This could potentially pave the way for other plants to grow, they said.

He warned the “dramatic increase in vegetation will further develop and create new soils across the region, providing a medium in which non-native, and potentially invasive species can become established”.

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Surgeon removes large brain tumours through patients’ eyebrows in ‘world first’

A surgeon is removing brain tumours “the size of large apples” through patients’ eyebrows, in what is believed to be a world first.

Consultant neurosurgeon Anastasios Giamouriadis, based in Aberdeen, has adapted an existing technique to remove the growths, leaving patients with only a small scar and black eye.

The operation can be over in three hours, and some people can leave hospital just 24 hours later and return to work within days.

“With this technique patients wake up straight way, they sometimes go home the day after the operation, where we know patients have quicker and better recoveries,” said Mr Giamouriadis.

Dealing with tumours at the front of the brain normally requires surgeons to remove a large portion of the skull – exposing healthy parts of the brain in the process – in what is known as a craniotomy.

Mr Giamouriadis who works for NHS Grampian said this type of surgery is not new, but he has modified it to give him “more space, through the eyebrow” allowing him “to remove very big brain tumours”.

The technique is “a game-changer and much less invasive”, he said. “Traditionally people would be left with scars across their full forehead, we avoid that with this method.”

“Before we needed do a craniotomy to give us full access. That takes a very long time. To get to the tumour takes up to three hours alone. In total that approach will take eight to 10 hours.”

Doreen Adams, 75, underwent a craniotomy to remove a tumour abroad before later undergoing the eyebrow method last year – known as the Modified Eyebrow Keyhole SupraOrbital Approach for Brain Tumours.

She said: “The recovery after the craniotomy was tough. I contracted sepsis and was ill for a number of weeks and the recovery took a lot of time. Unfortunately that surgery did not solve the problem.

“For me, the difference in the two surgeries is night and day. My recovery… was much, much quicker. I was out of hospital two days later and back to my normal life almost immediately.”

Mr Giamouriadis and his team have performed the new procedure on 48 patients so far.

Speaking about his modified surgical technique, he said: “We are not aware of anywhere else in the world that has managed to remove tumours as large as we have.”

Mr Giamouriadis is hopeful he can one day use virtual reality to teach other surgeons how to perform the new improved procedure.

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Intelligence report says Iran will keep trying to kill Trump regardless of election outcome

A new intelligence report says Iran will keep trying to kill former President Donald Trump regardless of the outcome of the election – and U.S. adversaries will continue trying to undermine confidence in the election even after Nov. 5. 

A partially redacted report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), released Tuesday, found that ‘efforts by Iran to assassinate former President Donald Trump and other former U.S. officials’ are ‘likely to persist after voting ends, regardless of outcome.’

In September, Trump’s campaign said that intelligence officials warned the Republican candidate of ‘real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him.’

The U.S. has gone to unprecedented lengths to protect the former president from retaliation from Iran for the killing of General Qassem Soleimani. 

Both Trump and his high-level officials who ordered the strike in 2020 have faced death threats from Iran, which also recently hacked Trump’s campaign and tried to peddle information to Democrats and the media.

Some $150 million per year has also gone to protecting officials like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, former head of U.S. Central Command, according to Politico. 

The report also said that Iran prefers Vice President Kamala Harris and will focus efforts on stopping Trump, and that Russia prefers Trump and will continue to attack Harris. 

‘Moscow and Tehran may also see an opportunity to continue pushing content favoring their preferred outcome,’ the report said. ‘For instance, Russian influence actors have pushed negative messaging about VP Harris and publicly alleged conspiracy theories about her elevation to the top of the ticket. Iranian cyber actors may try to publish content denigrating former President Trump.’

The report also warned that China, Iran and Russia are ‘better prepared to exploit’ elections this year due to ‘lessons drawn from the 2020 cycle.’

Those exploitations could amount to information operations, cyber threats and physical threats of violence. They are expected to conduct influence operations until the next president is sworn in, to undermine confidence in the results. 

China, the report said, is likely to focus its efforts on down-ballot congressional races. 

The report found foreign actors ‘will probably refrain from’ trying to alter the vote count since vote casting machines are not connected to the internet and 97% of voters live in precincts with paper records and a paper audit trail — and doing so could prompt Washington to retaliate. 

But U.S. adversaries took lessons from the drawn-out vote counting process in 2020. 

‘Many of these countries did not have a full appreciation for the various election processes that happen after polls close, and now that they have greater awareness of the significance, they have greater ability to attempt to disrupt them,’ an ODNI official told reporters. 

Intelligence officials have routinely warned that Beijing, Moscow and Tehran would be working overtime to sow division and undermine confidence in the U.S. governing system in an election year, and especially in the days leading up to Election Day. 

The official noted that intelligence linked Moscow to a recent unfounded claim circulating on social media about Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sexually assaulting a student while he was a high school teacher. 

In June, undercover FBI agents met with a Pakistani man who was looking to hire hit men to assassinate a U.S. politician, according to documents unsealed in August. They arrested the man, Asif Merchant, 46, on July 12, the day before Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.

In 2022, the Department of Justice charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps with attempting to kill former national security adviser John Bolton.

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Vast majority of Americans support photo ID requirement to vote, new poll says

As concerns over election integrity remain a contentious issue ahead of the 2024 presidential election, a new national poll shows that most Americans support having photo identification as a requirement to vote in elections.

A Gallup Poll released Thursday shows that 84% of respondents favor requiring a photo ID, while 83% support providing proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time. The poll noted that voter attitudes toward these issues were similar to those seen in its July 2022 poll.

Thirty-six states currently request or require voters to show IDs when they go to the polls.

In July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which aims to ensure only American citizens vote in federal elections, with the support of only five Democrats.

While the bill made it through the House floor, it faces strong opposition from Democrats in the Senate, which has yet to vote on the legislation. President Biden has also said he would veto the bill.

Among the states that don’t require voters to present ID is California, where Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in September signed legislation banning local governments from requiring voters to present an ID at the ballot box.

The Gallup poll comes as millions of early in-person and mail-in ballots have begun pouring in across the country.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 25 million ballots have been cast nationwide.

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

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Trump camp says Dem rhetoric ‘directly to blame’ for past assassination attempts

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign charged Vice President Kamala Harris with pushing ‘dangerous’ rhetoric that it said is ‘directly to blame’ for fostering the kind of political climate that led to two assassination attempts on the former president’s life.

‘She continues to stoke the flames of violence all in the name of politics,’ Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, after Harris compared Trump to Adolf Hitler from the steps of her home yesterday at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Trump was not the only critic of Harris’ rhetoric. Former third-party candidate-turned-Trump surrogate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., argued that the remarks comparing Trump to Hitler ‘inspires assassins.’

‘This type of rhetoric is dangerous to the life of Donald Trump and our Democracy as we know it,’ the Mississippi Republican Party said. Meanwhile, Jacob Helberg, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that as a person of Jewish descent with ancestors who endured the Holocaust, he thought it was a ‘disgrace’ for Harris to compare Trump to Hitler.

‘These dangerous rants by Kamala Harris, comparing President Trump to Hitler and calling him a fascist, are inciting more hate and vitriol, and ultimately leading to political violence against President Trump,’ said Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. Scalise. Scalise is the second-highest ranking Republican in the House and also survived an assassination attempt during a congressional baseball game in 2017. 

‘It has to stop. This is extremely reckless and dangerous, and we have seen its consequences time and time again. How many more assassination attempts will it take before Democrat leaders tone down their rhetoric?’

Colin Reed, a Republican strategist and former campaign manager for former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, said it was ‘ironic’ that Harris’ closing pitch heading into the election compares the former president to Hitler, following ‘all the summer rhetoric about needing to lower the temperature and cool the discourse has fallen away.’    

‘So much for the campaign of joy and vibes,’ Reed said.

Harris’ decision to invoke Hitler while talking about Trump follows a report from The Atlantic that chronicled comments from Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, who recounted a moment working under the former president when he lauded Hitler for doing ‘some good things.’ Kelly also reportedly said that working with Trump showed him that the former president met the definition of a ‘fascist,’ which both the White House and Harris subsequently said they agreed with. 

Meanwhile, Harris’ remarks come after her critics already warned the Democratic presidential candidate that her party’s rhetoric was contributing to the environment that has led to two assassination attempts on Trump’s life. 

‘The recklessness of the hateful rhetoric constantly aimed at Trump by his political opponents, even after he was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania in July,’ said New York Post columnist Miranda Devine.

‘No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people have tried to kill Donald Trump. I say that’s strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and cut this crap out, somebody is going to get hurt,’ said Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.

The calls for the left to tone down the rhetoric mirror calls for Republicans to do the same following the 2012 shooting of former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords. Giffords was targeted at an event for constituents by a deranged gunman and shot in the head. The gunman murdered six people and injured 12 others – including one of Giffords’ staffers.

South Carolina’s Rep. James Clyburn, the former number two ranking Democrat in the House, said following the shooting of Giffords, ‘We’re living in a time that all of us should begin to take stock of how our words affect people, especially those who aren’t very stable.’

Some Democrats pointed their finger at Sarah Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska and onetime vice-presidential candidate, citing an online ‘target map’ which featured stylized crosshairs over vulnerable electoral districts, including that of Giffords and others in the Democratic Party.

‘We need to put the guns down. Just as importantly, we need to put the gun metaphors away and permanently,’ MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann penned in a 2011 op-ed.

The University of Michigan conducted research following the Giffords shooting on how charged political messaging can inflame violent attitudes, particularly among those predisposed to be aggressive in daily life. ‘The results presented here clearly refute the claim that violent political rhetoric is without negative consequences,’ a Michigan political science researcher said at the time.

‘Last year, some Republican politicians used Second Amendment references (remember Sharron Angle and ‘Second Amendment remedies’ if Harry Reid didn’t lose) and revolutionary talk to express how angry they were about the state of their country. They strongly and vehemently rejected the charge, from Democrats, that they were encouraging an atmosphere of violence,’ political journalist David Weigel recounted for the left-leaning Slate Magazine after the Giffords shooting. ‘When Giffords’ opponent held a fundraiser and pitched it as ‘help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office, shoot a fully automatic M-16 with Jesse Kelly,’ Democrats saw the specter of violence, and Republicans saw political posturing.’

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China going after down-ballot races: report reveals which lawmakers are in their crosshairs

U.S. adversaries are ramping up their election-interference efforts, and China is going after anti-CCP down-ballot Republicans, according to a new report by Microsoft. 

Russia, meanwhile, is continuing to smear Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign with fake videos, and Iranian actors have been eyeing up election-related websites and mainstream media outlets.

Some of the misinformation campaigns pick up little traction, while others are amplified by thousands of unwitting Americans. 

‘With a particular focus on the 48 hours before and after Election Day, voters, government institutions, candidates, and parties must remain vigilant against deceptive and suspicious activity online,’ Microsoft said in its election report. 

Iran, last week, built a fake online persona known as ‘Bushnell’s Men’ calling on American voters to sit out the election due to both candidates’ support of Israel’s military operations, the report found. 

Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn is running for re-election with a safe double-digit lead over her Democratic opponent. And yet China has deployed influence actors to go after her online due to her efforts to ban TikTok and combat the CCP. 

In addition to Blackburn, China has taken a particular interest in three Republicans: Reps. Michael McCaul, Texas, Barry Moore, Ala., and Marco Rubio, Fla. 

‘This is nothing new. I’ve been informed before about China trying to carry out a malign influence campaign against me,’ Blackburn told Fox News Digital. 

‘China gets upset with me because I believe that you’ve got China trying to spy on our citizens,’ she went on. ‘You have them pushing danger and harm toward our children. They do not keep their trade agreements when it comes to agricultural products and manufactured goods. And I speak out about this. I felt like the Biden administration has treated China like they’re a friend or a business partner.’ 

The report found that in late September, Chinese actor Taizi Flood launched an online campaign criticizing Blackburn and promoting her opponent, state Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Tenn. 

One Flood post claimed that Blackburn ‘took $700,000 from opioid companies,’ referring to her campaign donations from pharmaceutical companies. 

The CCP is also going after McCaul by accusing him of ‘abusing power for personal gain.’ CCP-linked online posts accused McCaul of insider trading and pushing controversial bills. McCaul was sanctioned by China in 2023 after a visit to Taiwan. 

Flood-linked accounts also went after Moore, criticizing him for his support for Israel, with antisemitic language, according to the report. 

Unlike the Blackburn posts, Flood’s attacks on Moore picked up steam online and were further amplified by other Flood assets. 

Flood accounts attacked Rubio, who is not up for re-election, by accusing him of corruption. Microsoft has tracked influence operations surrounding Rubio since 2022.

Russia, China and Iran have all denied claims that they meddle in U.S. political affairs.

Blackburn, who has been pushing for passage of her kids’ online safety bill and has long called for the banning of TikTok, called the popular video-sharing platform a ‘spy mechanism.’ 

‘What they’re doing is building a database for every one of our children who are on — and adults, too — that platform, and they are using this to be able to track you, to monitor you, to control what you see, what you say, what you hear, what you think and ultimately how you vote.’ 

If Republicans take power in the November elections, Blackburn said she would push for them to ban all Confucius Institutes, or higher education centers run by CCP-affiliated scholars, hold China ‘accountable for their role in pushing fentanyl on our people’ and recognize Taiwan’s independence from China. 

The U.S. does not formally support or recognize Taiwan’s independence, though it arms the tiny island democracy against an encroaching Chinese military presence. 

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Harris entertains Supreme Court-packing question during town hall, supports ‘some kind of reform’

Vice President Kamala Harris declared she’s open to ‘some kind of reform’ of the Supreme Court when asked during a CNN town hall if she would support expanding the number of justices to 12.

‘There is no question that the American people increasingly are losing confidence in the Supreme Court and, in large part, because of the behavior of certain members of that court and because of certain rulings, including the Dobbs decision and taking away a precedent that had been in place for 50 years, protecting a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body,’ Harris said during Wednesday night’s event.  

‘So, I do believe that there should be some kind of reform of the court, and we can study what that actually looks like.’ 

Harris’ remarks come after she did not rule out potentially packing the Supreme Court in 2019 when she sought the party’s nod to face President Trump in the 2020 election. 

Harris reiterated several times during her previous campaign that she wasn’t opposed to a Supreme Court expansion, which would theoretically allow liberal justices to take on a majority role through new appointments.  

‘I’m open to this conversation about increasing the number of people on the United States Supreme Court,’ Harris once told voters in Nashua, New Hampshire, after a question was posed to her about adding up to four seats to the high court, according to Bloomberg. 

Trump had tweeted in 2020 that ‘FDR’s own party told him you cannot PACK the United States Supreme Court, it would permanently destroy the Court.’

Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report. 

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