On Thursday’s New Day on CNN, host Brianna Keilar and chief national affairs analyst Kasie Hunt recapped the GOP’s performance at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings with accusations of racism, 2024 ambitions, and QAnon conspiracy theorizing.
During an interview with former Senator Doug Jones, who is currently the White House’s nomination advisor for legislative affairs, Keilar wondered what he thinks of Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, “especially following the questioning she had of another black judicial nominee, Andre Mathis, she was making cognitive leaps that were really impossible to make about issues of race, and education, as she was questioning the judge. Did you see racism in any of that?”
After Jones declined to call Blackburn racist, Keilar shifted gears and lamented: “Look, this is a historic nomination, right? This is going to be historic assuming she is confirmed. This is a big day in history, you know, for the country, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican. I do think some of that got lost in some of these hearings.”
When Jones departed the segment, Keilar welcomed Hunt, who saw other motivations, mainly presidential ambitions:
So, I think there was a lot of performative actions toward that particular audience and a lot of them are competing in the same space. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, are, if they both run for president, a lot, are going to be competing for a lot of the same voters, it’s the same chunk of the Republican Party and they are voters that are focused on the issues that they brought up repeatedly.
Hunt’s 2022 tone is very different than her 2018 take on presidential aspirant Kamala Harris, “there is one critical difference from Anita Hill's experience: Senator Kamala Harris is one of four Democratic women now on the committee.”
She also accused Blackburn of playing to the craziest corners of the internet: “And you raised Marsha Blackburn as well. I mean, I think you saw there some of examples of -- of dragging a lot of the worst of the internet conspiracy theories on to this particular very public, mainstream stage, including this focus on -- on child pornography.”
Hunt then tried to have it both ways before reversing to her original position: “Clearly looking at sentencing and child pornography cases or—or-- any of the case she's judged is fair game in terms of talking about the hearing, but the obsession with child porn in general is something that’s, you know, native to QAnon and—and-- hits a lot of buttons for people who have found conspiracies on the right in recent years.”
Keilar then concluded the segment with one final shot at Blackburn: “And the private school that Brown Jackson is on the board of trustees on, it was just, Marsha Blackburn's body of work, not just in this hearing, but in others, certainly requires some examination. I’ll leave it at that.”
Others would say CNN’s body of work, not just in this segment, but in others, certainly requires some examination.
This segment was sponsored by SoFi,
Here is a transcript of the March 24 show:
CNN New Day with John Berman and Brianna Keilar
3/24/2022
8:34 AM ET
BRIANNA KEILAR: I go back to, in particular, Senator Blackburn's line of questioning, especially following the questioning she had of another black judicial nominee, Andre Mathis, she was making cognitive leaps that were really impossible to make about issues of race, and education, as she was questioning the judge. Did you see racism in any of that?
DOUG JONES: You know, look, I am not going to ascribe any particular motive or anything, I’m not going to put the label on anyone at this point. The main thing I want to do is highlight Judge Jackson and her qualifications and her brilliance and the type of justice, a true justice for all that she's going to be on the Supreme Court. So, I'll let others judge individual senators.
KEILAR: Look, this is a historic nomination, right? This is going to be historic assuming she is confirmed. This is a big day in history, you know, for the country, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican. I do think some of that got lost in some of these hearings. Do you, are you confident you're going to hold Joe Manchin in the vote?
KEILAR: We believe that Judge Jackson is going to get confirmed. As I’ve said all along, and even to this day, we're not taking any vote for granted, whether it is a vote that people perceive as positive or a vote that people perceive as negative. We want as many votes as we can get, but the objective is to make sure she gets confirmed for this historic nomination. So, we're approaching it, we still have work to do we're going to be meeting with senators on both sides of the aisle from now up until the time of the vote on the floor.
…
KASIE HUNT: He is one of several members of the committee potentially running in a Republican primary in 2024. So, I think there was a lot of performative actions toward that particular audience and a lot of them are competing in the same space. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, are, if they both run for president, a lot, are going to be competing for a lot of the same voters, it’s the same chunk of the Republican Party and they are voters that are focused on the issues that they brought up repeatedly. And you raised Marsha Blackburn as well. I mean, I think you saw there some of examples of—of-- dragging a lot of the worst of the internet conspiracy theories on to this particular very public, mainstream stage, including this focus on—on-- child pornography. Clearly looking at sentencing and child pornography cases or—or-- any of the case she's judged is fair game in terms of talking about the hearing, but the obsession with child porn in general is something that’s, you know, native to QAnon and—and-- hits a lot of buttons for people who have found conspiracies on the right in recent years.
KEILAR: And the private school that Brown Jackson is on the board of trustees on, it was just, Marsha Blackburn's body of work, not just in this hearing, but in others, certainly requires some examination. I’ll leave it at that.
