Embarrassing: CBS’s Gayle King Goes GAGA for Leftist Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

Curtis Houck
September 4th, 2024 2:41 PM

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The first hour of Tuesday’s CBS Mornings was dominated by two long segments (tallying roughly 13 minutes) and four teases swooning like kids from the 2010s at a One Direction concert for liberal Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the heels of her memoir’s release.

Co-host and Kamala Harris donor Gayle King did the interview and, along with a gentle wonderment why she hasn’t run for office, smeared Senate Republicans for grilling her in confirmation hearings, and joining her in expressing concern about racism in America given her interracial marriage.

In the second tease, King made no apology for her partisan tilt:

One of the reasons we’re excited, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, I just met her in the greenroom, and I’ve got to tell you, I’m floating. She is joining us for her first live broadcast interview about her new book. We’ll ask her about that. A lot of other things, news of the day, we call it.

And, in the last tease, co-host and former NFL player Nate Burleson boasted of Jackson’s book Lovely One as a “tremendous, tremendous read”.

King’s big moment finally arrived and gushed about how “we are very honored, Your Honor, to have you in the building” and that “[y]ou should have seen all the people, everybody dressed up a little” and “sitting up straighter in our chairs to have you in our presence”.

King eventually got to asking what it was like to finally be sworn in (click “expand”):

KING: Applause, applause. Welcome back to CBS Mornings. That is Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She was sworn in in 2022. We all know that she is the only Black woman ever to serve on our nation’s Highest Court, and now the justice is out with a memoir. I love this title, Lovely One. It’s the meaning of her first and middle names, Ketanji Onyika. She joins us for her first live broadcast interview about this book, and we are very honored, Your Honor, to have you in the building today.

JACKSON: Well, thank you for having me.

KING: You should have seen all the people, everybody dressed up a little. We’re all sitting up a little straighter in our chairs to have you in our presence but I want to go back to that video for a second —

JACKSON: Yes.

KING: Because it’s almost like dreams come true. On your Harvard application, you said one of the reasons you want to go is to hopefully fulfill your fantasy of being the first Black female Supreme Court justice.

JACKSON: Yes.

KING: So take us to that moment right there.

JACKSON: Well, you know, I had always known about the court —

KING: Yes.

JACKSON: — when I was young, and I talk about this in the book, I learned about Constance Baker Motley.

KING: Yes.

JACKSON: She the first Black female judge, and I just thought being a judge would be amazing, especially because my father was a lawyer.

KING: And he would cite cases at you at four.

JACKSON: He was.

KING: And he asked you for your opinion.

JACKSON: We would sit at the dining room table at four years old, when I was four.

King briefly made the insinuation she should have run for office: “But not politics? You always wanted to be in the law. Because your background also seemed suited for politics. But you chose the law.”

King laid into race hustling by acting as though tough questions at Senate confirmation hearings must only happen to black women:

 

I’m curious about your hearings, your confirmation hearings, because they seemed grueling to me. They seemed brutal to me. What did it feel — did it feel like that to you as you were sitting in the chair? Because I was very struck by Cory Booker’s words, but tell me what it was like for you sitting in that chair with a lot of incoming.

After gushing that she’s “already envisioning the movie” about her life and dreaming about who will play the justice and her husband, King unsuccessfully tried to have Jackson weigh in on court-packing, the notion of term limits for justices, and even trying to have her attack a conservative colleague, Justice Neil Gorsuch (whom her colleague Major Garrett was less-than gentle toward last month):

Time was running out before a break, but King snuck in a softball swooning over Jackson’s “a drop the microphone moment” in the form of a “fiery and searing” dissent penned in the Idaho abortion case. King even added “people are calling it a masterful opinion”, which is a way of saying King herself and her fellow Democrats.

The second block started with this joke of a question: “I want to go back to right before the break where we were talking about, how do you prepare for 19-hour days?”

King returned to the confirmation hearings, admitting she “was very touched” and “welled up at home watching” them when her personal friend and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) said he wouldn’t be asking her any questions. 

This went right into discussing her courtship with husband Patrick and the concern she had about how her world would react to dating a white man of privilege:

“[Y]our parents said, we trust you. We trust Patrick. But this is America,” King noted as their answer detailed in the book.

The interview was eventually brought to a merciful end, but nonetheless still dragged out (click “expand”):

KING: And now that you are an official Supreme Court Justice of the United States, is it everything you hoped or thought it would be? Do you still like the job, Justice Jackson?

JACKSON: It is such an honor to do this work.

KING: Yes.

JACKSON: I’m so privileged to have the opportunity to serve in this way, and very grateful.

KING: Well, you should know so many people are cheering you on. We don’t normally have, you know, Secret Service agents in the studio. People who normally aren’t even at work at this time are here —

JACKSON: Thank you.

KING: — because we all wanted to see you and pay our respects, and I’ll see you tonight at the Apollo.

JACKSON: Yes, ma’am.

KING: We are doing a Q&A. And you’re doing Stephen Colbert.

JACKSON: I am. I am.

KING: You’ve got a busy day.

JACKSON: I do.

KING: You’ve got a busy day. Eat your Wheaties.

JACKSON: Thank you so much.

KING: Thank you so much.

JACKSON: Thank you.

KING: Thank you so much for having us.

JACKSON: Thank you for having me.

To see the relevant CNN transcript from September 3, click here.

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