It is a grammatical error. The buffoons who write his script are ignorant of the king’s English.
One should say “Justice Sotomayor said, and I quote, blah blah blah, end of quote”.
Not a hanging offense except to the grammar police, but an error still.
Biden trying to blame his debate performance on a Euro trip he returned from 11 days before the debate is MUCH more damning, any way one can look at it.