During NBC’s live special coverage Thursday afternoon of the Senate confirmation vote for President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and a parade of network correspondents swooned over “history” in the making while taking partisan jabs at Republicans.
“Peter, I suspect that I know what the TVs are tuned to right now at the White House,” Holt remarked to chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander early in the special report. Alexander replied by parroting hyperbolic talking points from Democrats: “The press secretary delaying her briefing to reporters today so that the White House, the staff, and those other officials could watch this historic moment. What Chuck Schumer described as one of the great moments in American history.”
The reporter went on to gush: “...this is a moment that the White House is celebrating, celebrating this new soon-to-be justice as a woman of deep qualifications and a strong personal story....and she is someone who’s following grew, the support of Americans grew over the course of her testimony before the American public.”
Holt then turned to Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, who only increased the swoon factor:
...people who are close to her told me that they were not surprised that she was able to do as well in these confirmation processes. They say that she’s someone who her friends and people around her thought that she was destined to be on the Supreme Court. This moment, of course, is 233 years in the making and she is shattering a double-paned glass ceiling as a black woman.
Alcindor went on to add: “So this is a moment where so many people who know her are emotional and they’re also in some ways feeling that this is a great end to what was a painful process.”
Minutes later, Holt and Alexander took a break from fawning over the “history” Jackson was making to hail the “historic” nature of Vice President Kamala Harris presiding over the vote:
HOLT: And, Peter, we’ve been talking about history. Let’s not forget, presiding over this is Vice President Harris, who knows a thing or two about history as well.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, that’s exactly right. Not only is she the first black Vice President of the United States, she serves as the president – as Vice President – of the Senate. So this is a historic moment for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the first black Vice President of the United States presiding over the confirmation of the first black woman soon-to-be justice of the Supreme Court....it was a historic moment that the White House indicated that she [Harris] wanted to be a part of there to witness. So there is some more history that we’re watching here today.
However, amid all the celebration and histrionics, when “history” had to be delayed by just a few more minutes because Republican Senator Rand Paul was running a little late for the vote, Alcindor immediately assumed it was part of some nefarious GOP plot. Holt fueled the wild speculation: “But still waiting, again, for Senator Paul. Let me go back to Yamiche. Yamiche, you have to start wondering now whether there’s a statement being made here.”
Alcindor lamented it was “yet another hurdle” for Jackson:
That is a key question here. Garrett’s reporting that the Senator’s aides closed the door and would not answer questions during this historic vote really does say something. And it really, in some ways, begs the question of, is this gonna be yet another hurdle, another unusual thing that’s happening to Judge Jackson as she tries to make history? And as she will make history. As Garrett said, this vote will happen. She will be confirmed based on the vote count.
But it is, in some ways, an unsettling – it’s an unsettling development. In some ways it reminds me of the conversations that I’ve been having with black women who say that they’ve had to navigate all sorts of hurdles, all sorts of, they say, indignities in order to achieve what they want, in order to achieve the things that they’ve earned and that they deserve.
Only moments later, Senator Paul arrived and voted against Jackson’s nomination, as expected.
After the vote was officially tallied, Holt proclaimed: “A historic moment. The first black woman Vice President of the United States giving that final tally, 53 to 47, propelling Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first black woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Alcindor returned yet again to cheer: “This is a profound moment that took 233 years to achieve as a country. This is a jubilant moment for so many people who were supporting her and supporting the idea of her before she was the one who was chosen, the idea of a black woman ascending to the highest court of the land.”
NBC’s coverage was completely indistinguishable from a press release put out by the Biden White House or Senate Democrats.
There were no commercial breaks during the network’s live special coverage.
Here is a transcript of excerpts from the April 7 special report:
1:58 PM ET
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LESTER HOLT: Let’s bring in our chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander. Peter, I suspect that I know what the TVs are tuned to right now at the White House. Will we hear from the President today?
PETER ALEXANDER: Well, we’re not going to hear from the President on camera today, but it’s likely we’ll hear from him in the form of some statement. The press secretary delaying her briefing to reporters today so that the White House, the staff, and those other officials could watch this historic moment. What Chuck Schumer described as one of the great moments in American history.
Lester, the White House is casting this as a fulfillment of a promise the President made to the country. It was just over two years ago that then-candidate Biden said that he would, if he was elected as president, nominate the first black woman to the Supreme Court. He has followed through on that and it looks that it will become official just moments from now.And it does appear likely that President Biden will host an event here at the White House tomorrow to celebrate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Not entirely clear what lawmakers would be here, notably several lawmakers who were with the President in the course of the last 48 hours, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi among them, have just tested positive for COVID-19.
Nonetheless, this is a moment that the White House is celebrating, celebrating this new soon-to-be justice as a woman of deep qualifications and a strong personal story. She will have been confirmed for the fourth time by the Senate today and she is someone who’s following grew, the support of Americans grew over the course of her testimony before the American public. Lester?
HOLT: Alright, just a handful of senators yet to vote here. Yamiche Alcindor is our Washington correspondent. Yamiche, the Biden administration had to make some calculations about this nominee. What were they and how did they play out, ultimately?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The Biden administration wanted a nominee who was going to be a consensus builder, someone who was going to be able to get bipartisan support, but also someone who was going to fulfill that incredible and very important promise that President Biden made, which was to be an African American woman. And a woman who was going to be smart, who was going to have the background for this position, but also someone who was going to be able to be poised during what was going to be, they thought, a grueling confirmation process.
And they got someone who remained poised during a confirmation process that included all sorts of attacks from, frankly, Republicans. They wanted to paint her as being soft on crime. They, at one point, tried to say that she was going to be leaning into propaganda for Critical Race Theory. But she stood firm and people who are close to her told me that they were not surprised that she was able to do as well in these confirmation processes. They say that she’s someone who her friends and people around her thought that she was destined to be on the Supreme Court.
This moment, of course, is 233 years in the making and she is shattering a double-paned glass ceiling as a black woman. Her friends tell me that she was someone who took her studies very, very seriously and she was someone who wanted very much to be a judge but also wanted to be someone who would listen to other people who did not always agree with her, something that she’s going to have to be doing on the Supreme Court. And they say that she is someone who is ready to do just that.
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2:05 PM ET
HOLT: Garrett, Republicans in the hearings tried to paint Judge Brown Jackson as soft on sentencing, soft on certain crimes. They made a calculation there. What’s the mood now coming out of this vote, knowing the votes were there? What was the mood among Republicans?
GARRETT HAAKE: Republicans knew really from the word go that they were probably not going to be able to defeat this nominee. If Democrats all stuck together in this 50-50 Senate, you would have had a 50/50 confirmation vote with Kamala Harris breaking the tie. And Supreme Court politics becoming what they have become, especially over the last several nominations, it was all but assured from the get-go that this would be the case.
Republicans wanted to take some of the shine off whomever Joe Biden chose to nominate. They might argue that they did so here but obviously they lost three of their own members who crossed over in favor of Judge Jackson, voting for her. And I did hear from both Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski over these last couple of weeks, a bit of a backlash to the way that Judge Jackson’s confirmation was handled by some Republicans. They found the line of questioning about child predators and child pornography sentencing to be unfair and distasteful and overly politicized. That partially contributing to this bipartisan vote today.
HOLT: Garrett, thank you. As we wait for Senator Paul to return to the chambers and to vote, let me go back to Yamiche. And we’re talking about the history here and it is profound. But what’s the practical matter of the first black woman justice on the Supreme Court?
ALCINDOR: The practical matter is that this will be the first time that someone with her lived experiences will be able to serve on the Supreme Court and it’s not a coincidence. Civil rights activists that I’ve been talking to ahead of this vote tell me that we as a country need to recognize that this was a position that was denied to black women and he or she is going to come and be able to have the conversation with her fellow justices about what it's like to be a descendent of enslaved people, what it’s like to be a woman who is also balancing, of course, her life as a mother, but also her life as a wife, but also her life as someone who has a substantial amount of public defense in criminal justice background.
I’m also told by her friends that when you – when they think about the moment and the history that she’s making, that she is, they say, the perfect person to make this because she’s someone who has had a nuanced experience in America. She had an uncle who served time in prison but she also had a brother and family members who were themselves police officers and police chiefs. She’s someone who is also – has balanced a lot of adversity in her own life and that’s also helped other friends through adversity.
One of her friends was telling me about how she – even while she was going through the confirmation process was texting her friends at 2:00 in the morning responding to things that their children were doing and that was going on in their lives. So in some ways, she's someone who is making history as, they say, her friends, as someone who is both understanding of the ordinary stereotypes and challenges that black women have to deal with, but someone who has excelled past so many things as both a double Harvard graduate, but also someone who has been in – has been really ascending in judicial nominees and in judicial positional positions here.
So this is a moment where so many people who know her are emotional and they’re also in some ways feeling that this is a great end to what was a painful process. Garrett talked about the confirmation hearings and so many of her friends went to the Senate to sit behind her, to have her back, they say, during those hearings. But that she was someone who had to weather this alone and also someone who got emotional just at the very end, that single tear, when Senator Booker was talking about the fact that she was a great American and that he told her that she should not worry because this was her place in history to have.
So this is a moment that the nation is definitely taking in as a profound moment, but also a moment that is very much underscoring what a lot of African American women, they say, have to go through, which is a lot of adversity to get to a place as high as this.
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2:10 PM ET
HOLT: Let’s go to chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander. And, Peter, we’ve been talking about history. Let’s not forget, presiding over this is Vice President Harris, who knows a thing or two about history as well.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, that’s exactly right. Not only is she the first black Vice President of the United States, she serves as the president – as Vice President – of the Senate. So this is a historic moment for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the first black Vice President of the United States presiding over the confirmation of the first black woman soon-to-be justice of the Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court. The moment certainly not lost, the Vice President often presides over close votes.
This one, though, as evidenced by Murkowski and Collins and Mitt Romney, making it clear that they would vote in support of her, was not going to be close enough that her vote would be necessary here, but it was a historic moment that the White House indicated that she wanted to be a part of there to witness. So there is some more history that we’re watching here today.
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2:14 PM ET
HOLT: But still waiting, again, for Senator Paul. Let me go back to Yamiche. Yamiche, you have to start wondering now whether there’s a statement being made here.
ALCINDOR: That is a key question here. Garrett’s reporting that the Senator’s aides closed the door and would not answer questions during this historic vote really does say something. And it really, in some ways, begs the question of, is this gonna be yet another hurdle, another unusual thing that’s happening to Judge Jackson as she tries to make history? And as she will make history. As Garrett said, this vote will happen. She will be confirmed based on the vote count.
But it is, in some ways, an unsettling – it’s an unsettling development. In some ways it reminds me of the conversations that I’ve been having with black women who say that they’ve had to navigate all sorts of hurdles, all sorts of, they say, indignities in order to achieve what they want, in order to achieve the things that they’ve earned and that they deserve. So here is now another moment where Washington is sort of scratching its head wondering what in the world is going on while we wait for the Justice to be confirmed. Or the Judge, I should say, to be confirmed. She’s not a justice just yet.
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2:19 PM ET
HOLT: A historic moment. The first black woman Vice President of the United States giving that final tally, 53 to 47, propelling Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first black woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Let me go back to Yamiche and reflect on this moment.
ALCINDOR: This is a profound moment that took 233 years to achieve as a country. This is a jubilant moment for so many people who were supporting her and supporting the idea of her before she was the one who was chosen, the idea of a black woman ascending to the highest court of the land. So many of her friends and those closest to her told me today that they see this as really inspirational to so many other black women and people of color and women across our country. People who want to be following in her footsteps.
This is a moment that Ketanji Brown Jackson herself, now on her way to being Justice Jackson, leaned into, reminding people that she is a descendent of enslaved people. That her name, “Ketanji,” is African. Her friends often told me that she was someone who made sure people knew how to say her name because she wanted to have pride in the heritage of her ancestors. So this is a moment for our country to really, in some ways, reflect on not only this achievement but also the barriers that exist for so many others that are continuing to try to achieve the sort of things that she has now achieved.
And I should say one other thing, which is that some of her friends also told me that representation isn’t always everything. That representation and having her on the Court is a start, but that institutions and so many other things in our country need to change for what we see here today to be – to reach it’s full potential in mattering in our society.
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2:22 PM ET
ALEXANDER: We have just learned, as cameras were invited into the room, the Roosevelt Room here at the White House, that President Biden was with the Judge inside the White House as they watched this final vote taking place by a 53 to 47 margin. Her confirmation, other senior staff, we are told, were also in the room. We are just getting those photographs and as soon as we have them, we will share with you.
Separately, the White House just moments ago announced that tomorrow it will extend this celebration with a 12:15 Eastern Time celebration of her confirmation to take place on the South Lawn here at the White House, with remarks from both President Biden himself and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. That’s gonna be sort of a two-day affair.
This has been going on for a matter of months. It’s something the President has thought about for years, dating back to his time having served as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and now tomorrow – well, I guess today and ultimately tomorrow – in person, in front of America, the two will stand in a chance to celebrate this historic achievement. And what the President has said is an opportunity to make the Court look a bit more like America. Obviously, the first black woman soon to be seated as a justice on the United States highest court.
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2:23 PM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: And, Lester, you know, beyond I think what you and Yamiche and Peter and Garrett have talked about, the historical sweep of this moment here, one of the things I’m looking at is the political undertone of this, right? Because, yes, the White House can tomorrow, at this celebration Peter was referencing, talk about how this was a bipartisan moment for them. And it absolutely is. It is also not overwhelmingly bipartisan, right? It is three Republicans who have joined here, the Democrats.
And that’s not how it always used to be, right? It wasn’t always the case that we would see this close of a vote on something as important and as big of a deal as a Supreme Court justice. What you have seen, though, as that has happened, right, and you’ve heard even some of these Republicans and many Democrats decry what they describe as the overly political process now, the confirmation process that we’ve been covering here over this last month or so, that has eroded public support in the institution of the Supreme Court overall it seems. When you look at some of these numbers, you look at, for example, Gallup, with the Supreme Court trust hitting an all-time low just last year, 40% of Americans viewing the institution itself favorably. That is something that could have longer-term ramifications down the road, Lester, as we continue to see more openings on the Court and more confirmation processes.
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