Reacting to the news on Wednesday’s New Day that Susan Collins became the first GOP senator to announce her intention to vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson, CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin suggested that it is Republicans who are to blame for the general raise in partisanship in Supreme Court confirmations.
Toobin’s ahistorical remarks came after host Brianna Keilar asked, “Jeffrey, often the conversation and historically it has been about whether the nominee is qualified, right? Not whether they're nominated by a Democrat or Republican, are they qualified to do the job, clearly Ketanji Brown Jackson is.”
Toobin started out well enough, pointing out the problems with Keilar’s premise:
She is. But—but-- the standards the Senate have used have changed in recent years. There is just a complete transformation in how the Senate evaluates Supreme Court justices. It -- it’s just a more -- more partisan process now. You had ideological figures like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia confirmed with over 90 votes, both of them. The days of 90 vote confirmations are over for the foreseeable future. This is a partisan enterprise.
However, Toobin blamed this rise in partisanship on Republicans: “...that's how it's been, basically, since, you know, with -- with Obama's two nominations, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, there were a handful of crossover votes by Republicans, but by the time the three Trump nominees came before the Senate, it was almost a straight up partisan vote, and that's what we're looking at here.”
Sotomayor and Kagan both received more Republican votes both in raw totals and in terms of percentage than Samuel Alito received Democratic votes and then there is how Democrats treated Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork.
At least Republicans grilled Jackson about her record, Democrats accuse Republican nominees of being everything from racists to serial rapists and Toobin treats them as equivalent.
This segment was sponsored by Touch of Modern.
Here is a transcript for the March 30 show:
CNN New Day with John Berman and Brianna Keilar
3/30/2022
8:30 AM ET
BRIANNA KEILAR: I want to bring in Jeffrey Toobin to this conversation because, Jeffrey, often the conversation and historically it has been about whether the nominee is qualified, right? Not whether they're nominated by a Democrat or Republican, are they qualified to do the job, clearly Ketanji Brown Jackson is.
JEFFREY TOOBIN: She is. But -- but the standards the Senate have used have changed in recent years. There is just a complete transformation in how the Senate evaluates Supreme Court justices. It -- it’s just a more -- more partisan process now. You had ideological figures like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia confirmed with over 90 votes, both of them. The days of 90 vote confirmations are over for the foreseeable future. This is a partisan enterprise. And, you know, it -- it’s this will be -- the president will say this was a bipartisan confirmation, but barely. I mean, we'll see whether she gets -- whether Judge Jackson gets even one other vote. But that's how it's been, basically, since, you know, with -- with Obama's two nominations, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, there were a handful of crossover votes by Republicans, but by the time the three Trump nominees came before the Senate, it was almost a straight up partisan vote, and that's what we're looking at here.
