While CBS was conceding that Brett Kavanaugh will probably make it onto the Supreme Court, ABC’s Terry Moran on Thursday fumed about how “millions of women” will feel “annihilated” if the Judge is confirmed. He also warned Kavanaugh not to rule against abortion or the high Court will lose “legitimacy.”
Moran lamented, “I can't imagine the feeling of the millions and millions of women, and others who found Dr. Ford very, very credible.” Conceding a Kavanaugh victory, the ABC journalist stooped to extreme hyperbole on female reaction: “If, as seems likely, Republicans are able to get... Judge Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court, they're just going to feel annihilated inside.”
But Moran wasn’t done. He lectured a potential future Supreme Court justice Kavanaugh: “Well, he had better take into that lifetime appointment a sense of the woundedness [sic] of so many people in the country.”
I mean, overturning Roe vs. Wade by an all-male majority, two of whom have had credible accusations of sexual misconduct lodged against them would not be a legitimate action. And that is the question of the court. Legitimacy. It has always had a high place in American, in the American popular opinion, and it could lose it if it loses legitimacy.
In other words, if a judge that Terry Moran doesn’t agree with, who will make women feel “annihilated,” does something that the reporter opposes, the Court will lose “legitimacy? Got it.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
ABC live coverage of Supreme Court hearings
9/27/18
6:50 p.m. EasternGEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Terry Moran, January 2017, it also reminds me of November 1991 and then the election of 1992, Clarence Thomas is confirmed in 1991. 1992, it's called the year of the woman.
MORAN: And that, it could well be what happens in this country. I can't imagine the feeling of the millions and millions of women, and others who found Dr. Ford very, very credible. And if, as seems likely, Republicans are able to get — to get Judge Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court, they're just going to feel annihilated inside. I think in general today, beyond the divisions between Republicans and Democrats, men and women, just looking at what happened today, this is another bad day for American institutions, it seems to me.
People looked at this, perhaps as an inquiry, perhaps as a search for truth, and I don't think they were very satisfied. They probably end up feeling that this is a government that is not working the way it should, because of these divisions. That they want to see better out of the Senate and out of the Supreme Court.
...
6:59 p.m. Eastern
STEPHANOPOULOS: Terry, you mentioned that earlier judge Kavanaugh facing a catch 22. Let's say for the sake of argument that he does get through. That it is a 51-49 partisan vote. What does he do in that situation, as he ascends to the highest court of the land?
MORAN: Well, he had better take into that lifetime appointment a sense of the woundedness [sic] of so many people in the country, and factor that into his decisions. I mean, overturning Roe vs. Wade by an all-male majority, two of whom have had credible accusations of sexual misconduct lodged against them would not be a legitimate action. And that is the question of the court. Legitimacy. It has always had a high place in American, in the American popular opinion, and it could lose it if it loses legitimacy.
