During ABC’s This Week’s “Powerhouse Roundtable” discussion on the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the mostly liberal panel was clearly not happy. Much like co-anchor Martha Raddatz from earlier in the show, panelist and USA Today bureau chief Susan Page lashed out at the Supreme Court for coming down with a decision that she didn’t like.
Raddatz first sought to accuse the Supreme Court of being hypocritical with the help of a tweet from former leftist Solicitor General and frequent MSNBC guest Neal Katyal.
“Let me read what the former Solicitor General Neal Katyal tweeted right before the decision was announced” Raddatz said before putting Katyal’s tweet on the screen. “He said it’s going to be very weird if Supreme Court ends a constitutional right to obtain an abortion, saying it should be left to the states to decide right after it just imposed a constitutional right to concealed carry of firearms saying it cannot be left to the states to decide.”
“So what happened? How do you read that?” Raddatz asked, turning to Page.
“Look at these two issues together, and it seems to be one conclusion you draw, is there is no way you can argue that the Supreme Court is now not just another partisan player in national politics” Page huffed.
She continued to wail that the Supreme Court is somehow political because they wouldn’t make up a mythical right to an abortion in the constitution: “The idea that it’s a dispassionate group of nine people who are going to just look at the law, it seems to me that has been shredded and what we're left with is a sense, here’s just another place, another polarized place where politics is what matters.”
“The President who appoints you is what matters. You get through the confirmation process by saying as little as possible about the issues that matter and then you're on that court” Page said, adding that the “one difference from this and the other two branches of government, lifetime appointment. And the justices who made this decision are mostly in their 50s. They’re gonna be there for a long time.”
This meltdown on ABC was made possible by CarFax. Their information is linked.
To read the relevant transcript click expand:
ABC’s This Week
6/26/2022
9:48:29 a.m. EasternMARTHA RADDATZ: And Susan, back to guns and the Supreme Court, a lot of people are saying, kind of a mixed message there, because it will now be easier to carry a gun and the court talked about states' rights. Let me read what the former Solicitor General Neal Katyal tweeted right before the decision was announced. He said it’s going to be very weird if Supreme Court ends a constitutional right to obtain an abortion, saying it should be left to the states to decide right after it just imposed a constitutional right to concealed carry of firearms saying it cannot be left to the states to decide. So what happened? How do you read that? I mean obviously you have an amendment, the Second Amendment.
SUSAN PAGE: Look at these two issues together, and it seems to be one conclusion you draw, is there is no way you can argue that the Supreme Court is now not just another partisan player in national politics, the idea that it’s a dispassionate group of nine people who are going to just look at the law, it seems to me that has been shredded and what we're left with is a sense, here’s just another place, another polarized place where politics is what matters, the President who appoints you is what matters. You get through the confirmation process by saying as little as possible about the issues that matter and then you're on that court. One difference from this and the other two branches of government, lifetime appointment. And the justices who made this decision are mostly in their 50s. They’re gonna be there for a long time.