Kamala Harris calls for expanding Supreme Court and changing Electoral College, says popular vote "has to matter"

Former Vice President Kamala Harris called for expanding the U.S. Supreme Court and pursuing changes to the Electoral College, arguing that the popular vote should carry greater weight in presidential elections.

"We need more justices on the Supreme Court so that we can have a court that actually reinforces the spirit and principles behind the Constitution of the United States," Harris said.

She also said Democrats should pursue "what is possible around changing the Electoral College," adding: "The popular vote has to matter." Harris backed statehood for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico if Puerto Ricans choose it.

On voting rights, Harris accused Republicans of using politics to enable racial discrimination. "They have backdoored racism through the door of politics," she said, arguing that recent changes were taking voting rights back toward "a Jim Crow South."

Harris also attacked President Donald Trump over restrictions on press access, accusing his administration of trying to prevent Americans from seeing what she described as its "incompetence, cruelty and corruption." "If you want to do things in secret, then why don't you just leave the White House?" she said.

She argued more broadly that powerful political forces were trying to divide Americans by persuading them that gains for one group must come at another group's expense.