During a break in day two of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday, CBS News special coverage laughably tried to claim that the left-wing Supreme Court nominee “almost sounded like a conservative” as she answered questions from lawmakers. Later in the discussion, there was fretting over the war in Ukraine being a “distraction” from Jackson’s “historic moment.”
While giving her analysis of the hearing so far, in the 10:00 a.m. ET hour, chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford told anchor Gayle King: “...one thing that was, I thought, incredibly striking, at times she almost sounded like a conservative. I mean, she’s giving almost a tribute to the conservative methodology and interpretation of the Constitution.” She emphasized some of Jackson’s responses: “You look at the text, you look at the original understanding, you don’t really consider international law at all.”
Crawford then at least attempted to rein in her commentary – while still fawning over Jackson’s performance:
No one thinks that she’s going to be a conservative justice. Based on her record, she will be a liberal justice on that Supreme Court. But her willingness to kind of acknowledge conservative judicial methodology I thought was interesting, it shows how that has really penetrated the consciousness. And also that she will hear those arguments up on that Supreme Court. That’s a very important quality for a justice, to be able to hear and listen and exchange.
Over on NBC, during special coverage of the hearing in the 11:00 a.m. ET hour, left-wing political analyst Eugene Robinson similarly tried to argue that Jackson was somehow reaching out to conservatives:
She mentioned the word “text” again and again. Which I found interesting. As a message to conservatives who believe in textualism or originalism or whatever – she mentioned, you know, what did the founders intend? And I think she’s making clear that she is not a judge who believes the Constitution is what we think it is, you know, right now. It is what it is.
He then summed up his notion of supposed judicial moderation: “In a way, it seemed to me she was saying, ‘I’m more Kagan than Sotomayor,’ in a way.”
The leftist media have a long track record of ridiculously trying to claim that liberal Supreme Court nominees are actually “moderate” or even “conservative,” as NewsBusters Director of Media Analysis Geoff Dickens recently documented. Of course whenever a Republican president nominates a jurist to the high court, they are immediately tarred by the same press as too far right.
After King finished talking to Crawford on Tuesday, she turned to CBS White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe for administration reaction to the hearings. Referencing President Biden’s upcoming trip overseas to an emergency NATO summit about the war in Ukraine, King fretted the deadly conflict was a “distraction” for the commander in chief:
Ed, we know the President is heading to Brussels tomorrow for a NATO summit. How much is the war in Ukraine a distraction for him for this historic moment? And do you think he’s watching any of these hearings now before he leaves?
O’Keefe assured her that Biden was “asking for regular updates today on the status of the hearings,” “keenly interested,” and would “be keeping close tabs today.” Hopefully the biggest international crisis since World War II won’t keep Biden too busy.
There were no commercials in the special coverage on CBS and NBC.
Here is a transcript of the March 22 discussion on CBS:
10:12 AM ET
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GAYLE KING: Our chief legal correspondent, that’s Jan Crawford, has covered the Supreme Court for decades now. Jan, good morning to you. What are your observations from the testimony we’ve heard so far?
JAN CRAWFORD: Well, picking up on what Nikole [Killion] said and the issue of the sex offender, I mean, Senator Durbin used his entire 30 minutes to really try to rebut all the concerns that Republicans laid out yesterday that they had about her record, not only her sentencing for sex offenders but her judicial philosophy, her question – her views on court packing, her work on the sentencing commission and efforts to eliminate some of those mandatory minimum sentences that she did when she worked on that commission.
All giving her an opportunity to kind of put out her position before she gets the really intense questions from the Republicans later on as this day progresses. And these questions – we heard from Senator Grassley on the Republican side – but these questions are going to get more and more intense as we get to some of these junior Republican senators on that committee.
I thought she used the clock very effectively, and that’s something that now the Chief Justice, John Roberts, did in his hearings as well. The clock is your friend, right? And so we saw her in these exchanges really talk about cases and the laws that were at issue and explaining her reasoning. She did that very effectively in this opening round of questions.
And then finally, Gayle, one thing that was, I thought, incredibly striking, at times she almost sounded like a conservative. I mean, she’s giving almost a tribute to the conservative methodology and interpretation of the Constitution. You look at the text, you look at the original understanding, you don’t really consider international law at all. Saying that she may depart ways with her former boss, Justice Stephen Breyer.
No one thinks that she’s going to be a conservative justice. Based on her record, she will be a liberal justice on that Supreme Court. But her willingness to kind of acknowledge conservative judicial methodology I thought was interesting, it shows how that has really penetrated the consciousness. And also that she will hear those arguments up on that Supreme Court. That’s a very important quality for a justice, to be able to hear and listen and exchange.
KING: Well, it seems to be, Jan, so far, so good for the Judge.
(...)
10:15 AM ET
KING: Let’s check in now with Ed O’Keefe, he’s at the White House. Ed, we know the President is heading to Brussels tomorrow for a NATO summit. How much is the war in Ukraine a distraction for him for this historic moment? And do you think he’s watching any of these hearings now before he leaves?
ED O’KEEFE: Well, we got a sense of that a little while ago, Gayle, when the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted out that he was pleased with her – with Judge Jackson’s opening statement yesterday, grateful for those who introduced her, and said he’s asking for regular updates today on the status of the hearings. There’s nothing public on the President’s schedule of note and so this is believed to be in part a day where he’s preparing for those travels to Europe tomorrow.
But clearly as the former chairman of the Judiciary Committee who used to run these confirmation hearings himself, he’s keenly interested in this and we’re expecting that he’ll be keeping close tabs today. The White House obviously pleased with how day one went, so far pretty pleased with how things are going.
As Jan said, the fact that Judge Jackson using the clock to her advantage, getting an opportunity early on to rebut some of the anticipated Republican arguments, all of it, they believe, a good sign as this continues towards inevitable confirmation.
(...)
