Day two of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings brought direct and pointed questions from Republican Senator Josh Hawley (MO) about her history of going easy on child porn cases. But CNN masturbation expert and chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin took strong issue with Hawley’s focus on the serious issue many Americans care about.
Immediately following Hawley’s allotted time to question Jackson, CNN cut away with host Wolf Blitzer looking to Toobin for his take. “Republican Senator Josh Hawley trying to paint Judge Jackson as somehow sympathetic to child porn offenders,” Blitzer scoffed.
Toobin began by whining about how Hawley’s entire time slot was spent on a particular instance of Jackson openly showing sympathy for a child porn offender and suggested the Senator relished in talking about how heinous the crime was:
This was really extraordinary. You have a judge here who has been on the bench for ten years almost. And we had the entire half-hour of Senator Hawley's question about a single case where he got to recite the grisly details of, and say pedophilia over and over again.
“This is about appealing to the QAnon audience, this cult that is a big presence in Republican Party politics now, that is – where Senator Hawley is trying to ingratiate himself with that group and run for president with their support,” Toobin asserted.
Adding: “This has very little to do with Judge Jackson who, as has come out throughout the hearing today, is one of many judges who have found the sentencing guidelines in these child porn possession cases excessive.”
Perhaps the concerning takeaway is that “many judges” think “the sentencing guidelines” for pedophiles and child porn offenders are “excessive.”
Blitzer then looked to senior political correspondent Abby Philip who agreed with Toobin that Hawley was using a “dog whistle to the kind of QAnon-right.” She also insisted “the substance of the argument, as has been explained many times, don't really check out.”
But that didn’t address the evidence Hawley presented. At one point he read from a Jackson ruling where she lamented how “sex offenders are truly shunned in our society” and how she claimed 8-year-olds were “peers” of an 18-year-old offender who she sentenced to only three months in prison when the “liberal prosecutor” (as Hawley described them) wanted two years.
Josh @HawleyMO: "[Y]ou go on to say, 'sex offenders are truly shunned in our society.' I'm just trying to figure out, judge, is he the victim here? Or the victims are the victims? You're saying that you're apologizing to him. You're...sorry for the anguished this has caused him" pic.twitter.com/I1cNREs65U
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 22, 2022
Further during the segment, Toobin seriously suggested that Jackson sounded like a conservative:
What struck me is how her language in talking about her methodology to interpret the Constitution was often the language of conservatives. She talked about the limited role of federal judges, staying in her lane. She even said several times that she believed in looking at the original intent of the framers of the Constitution. This is language that's very much associated with Justice Scalia, with Justice Thomas.
“And I will be curious to see if there are some Democrats who are a little startled by that,” he concluded.
This comes a few months after not one but two CNN producers were arrested for sexual misconduct with minors.
This defense of lowing sentencing requirements for pedophiles and child porn offenders was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Progressive and DirecTV. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Situation Room
March 22, 2022
5:48:57 p.m. EasternWOLF BLITZER: So Jeffrey, what is your reaction to this exchange. Republican Senator Josh Hawley trying to paint Judge Jackson as somehow sympathetic to child porn offenders.
JEFFREY TOOBIN: This was really extraordinary. You have a judge here who has been on the bench for ten years almost. And we had the entire half-hour of Senator Hawley's question about a single case where he got to recite the grisly details of, and say pedophilia over and over again.
This is about appealing to the QAnon audience, this cult that is a big presence in Republican Party politics now, that is – where Senator Hawley is trying to ingratiate himself with that group and run for president with their support. This has very little to do with Judge Jackson who, as has come out throughout the hearing today, is one of many judges who have found the sentencing guidelines in these child porn possession cases excessive.
But, I mean, that was extraordinary in half-hour, all about a single case.
BLITZER: Abby, what’s your reaction to Senator Hawley’s questioning of Judge Jackson in this one case?
ABBY PHILIP: Yeah, I mean, I think first of all Jeffrey is absolutely right, that this is definitely a dog whistle to the kind of QAnon-right. And the substance of the argument, as has been explained many times, don't really check out.
(…)
5:51:44 p.m. Eastern
BLITZER: Overall, Geoffrey, how has Judge Jackson handled today's first round of questioning?
TOOBIN: I can't imagine that any votes were changed. And that's good news for the Judge because in a Democratic majority, albeit a narrow one, she is heading for confirmation.
What struck me is how her language in talking about her methodology to interpret the Constitution was often the language of conservatives. She talked about the limited role of federal judges, staying in her lane. She even said several times that she believed in looking at the original intent of the framers of the Constitution. This is language that's very much associated with Justice Scalia, with Justice Thomas. And I will be curious to see if there are some Democrats who are a little startled by that.
