On Friday’s CNN Newsroom, White House correspondent John Harwood said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) opposition to President Biden’s nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on the grounds she is going to be a reliable liberal is not a substantive criticism.
Host Bianna Golodryga asked Harwood to comment on how the GOP will approach the hearings and McConnell’s claim that Jackson was the pick of left-wing dark money groups: “On the one hand, maybe it’s not surprising to hear from—from-- Mitch McConnell some criticism there in describing her as—as-- an extremist, but that having been said, she was on—on-- the shortlist and—and-- top of that shortlist for a while now. Why are we just hearing this from him now?”
The obvious answer is that we are hearing it now because Jackson wasn’t officially the nominee, but for Harwood, the supposed real answer is that conservatives just don’t like Biden. “Well, look, Republicans have a lot of pressure within their party to oppose anything that Joe Biden does," he said.
After reporting that McConnell didn’t object to Biden’s pledge to nominate a black woman, Harwood added: “When I hear Mitch McConnell saying this is the candidate of far-left dark money group, that is a procedural criticism. That is not a substantive criticism of Ketanji Brown Jackson.”
Of course, Harwood has it completely backward. Criticizing the nominee’s actual views on the matter is a substantive criticism while criticizing Biden’s pledge would’ve been a procedural criticism.
Harwood wrapped up his remarks by predicting the Republicans will “be cutthroat” in their opposition to Jackson and while that is certainly possible, they will be substantive in their criticism, unlike how Democrats behaved during previous confirmation cycles with now-justices Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett.
This segment was sponsored by VRBO.
Here is a transcript of the February 25 show:
CNN CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
2/25/2022
10:27 AM ETBIANNA GOLODRYGA: John Harwood, can you respond to that? On the one hand, maybe it’s not surprising to hear from—from-- Mitch McConnell some criticism there in describing her as—as-- an extremist, but that having been said, she was on—on-- the short list and—and-- top of that short list for a while now. Why are we just hearing this from him now?
JOHN HARWOOD: Well, look, Republicans have a lot of pressure within their party to oppose anything that Joe Biden does. It was significant, as you mentioned, that Mitch McConnell said the other day, he didn't have a problem with President Biden committing to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court. When I hear Mitch McConnell saying this is the candidate of far-left dark money group, that is a procedural criticism. That is not a substantive criticism of Ketanji Brown Jackson and I would suspect Mitch McConnell, as somebody who has other fish to fry in the 2022 midterm elections, will be wary of going too aggressively after Ketanji Brown Jackson and I think the signal that he sent rebutting his colleagues about the idea of—of—of-- pledging to select a black woman was pretty significant that there will be Republican opposition but it won't be cut throat Republican opposition that would threaten her nomination.
