Graham rips Dems' treatment of past Republican nominees in Jackson hearing: 'We're tired of it'

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson faces Senate questioning

Fox News anchors Sandra Smith and Shannon Bream and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy analyze the first round of Senate questioning for Biden’s Supreme Court nominee.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked a number of personal questions to Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday, not out of concern for what her answers might be, but to make the point that they are irrelevant, despite being used in the past by Democrats for Republican-appointed nominees.

After asking Jackson about her religion and degree of faith, Graham recognized that this line of questioning was inappropriate for a judicial confirmation. The Republican referenced the confirmation processes of Justices Amy Coney Barrett, whose religious adherence was made an issue by the media, and which had been raised as an issue of concern by senators during her Seventh Circuit confirmation hearing. 

“We’re tired of it, and it’s not going to happen to you,” Graham said. “But it just appalls me that we can have such a system in America that if a conservative woman wants to stand out and say, I love my family, just as much as you love yours, and my faith means just as much to me as it does you, that all of a sudden they’re some kind of weirdo.”

Graham also asked Jackson about her affiliation with the Black Law Students Association at Harvard, which had brought in a speaker with controversial viewpoints when she was not part of the group. Graham noted that it “would be wrong for me or anybody else” to hold that person’s views or statements against her, even though Democrats had brought up a similar situation during Justice Samuel Alito’s confirmation.

Further illustrating what he claimed was a double standard, Graham noted that while President Biden specifically nominated a Black woman to the Supreme Court, he “actively filibustered” her when she was nominated to the D.C. Circuit Court by President George W. Bush in 2005.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., questions Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

“So I guess the reason I’m bringing all this up is it gives me a chance to remind this committee in America there are two standards going on here. If you’re an African American conservative woman, you’re fair game to have your life turned upside down, to be filibustered, no matter how qualified you are. And if you express your faith as a conservative, all of a sudden you’re an f’ing nut.”

Republicans have made a point ever since Jackson’s nomination that they would vigorously review her judicial record and philosophy, but would not attack her for her personal life.

“And I hope when this is over, people will say you were at least well treated if we don’t agree with you,” Graham said.

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