“The last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis. This Judge Jackson might’ve gone there to defend them.”
–Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) on the Senate floor talking about Ketanji Brown-Jackson.
Tom Cotton is a Harvard-educated lawyer, yes – another one of the MAGA Ivy Leaguers, Hawley, Cruz, etc., – that knows better and simply doesn’t care. He knows that the more extreme Fox viewer, the ones that vote in presidential primaries, often racist, will noddingly approve.
The panel on former extreme conservative Joe Scarborough’s show was driven to fury over the comment. The comment itself referenced that Ketanji Brown-Jackson represented detainees at Guantanamo Bay as a federal public defender. She noted she didn’t get to pick her cases. They are assigned. Scarborough took it from there:
He is twisting this so out of context. It is a wretched display for yet another Ivy League guy. Another Ivy leaguer who went to Harvard Law School, lying to you, acting stupid about what happens when you’re a public defender, what happens when you’re assigned a case. You know why you’re assigned those cases? Because the Constitution of the United States of America, which Republicans like Tom Cotton claim to defend.
They carry it around in their pocket, hold up their little pocket-sized Constitutions, but don’t really give a damn about what’s inside of it! Because if Tom Cotton did, he’d understand that she was doing what the Constitution of the United States guarantees every American, that lawyers will do, and that lawyers have done since the beginning of this republic. He knows better. That’s what makes it so absolutely, positively shameful.
Yes. When one appreciates that Cotton fully understood both the situational-constitutional aspect of Brown-Jackson’s job, it is almost impossible not to think back to Congressman Eric Swalwell’s observation that Republican politics has become indistinguishable from pro-wrestling. They jump from the ropes and throw a chair over your head – all for television – but never with any real animosity, never really meaning to hurt the person.
Except that, unlike pro-wrestling, the average Fox viewer doesn’t know it’s fake, and the Ivy Leaguers fully understand and appreciate that reality or they wouldn’t do it. The fact that many viewers believe senators like Cotton ensure that the chair over the head does hurt, and those words will follow Brown-Jackson right on to the high court with hardened conservative hatred already cemented in.
As Joe said, absolutely, positively, shameful. Cotton knows it and doesn’t care.
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