CNN At This Hour host Kate Bolduan teamed up with presidential senior advisor Cedric Richmond on Thursday to decry the fact that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson had to face some tough questions from Republicans during her Senate confirmation hearings.
Bolduan took the fact that Republicans dared to ask Jackson sharp questions to declare: “I'll call it a rough road to this point for Judge Jackson in some regard because of, for — for one reason in particular, because of some of the questions that she faced during confirmation hearings.”
Against a chyron that read “Judge Jackson Hit With Culture War Rhetoric At Confirmation Hearing,” Bolduan played a video montage of various GOP senators grilling Jackson over her views and record:
MARSHA BLACKBURN: Can you provide a definition for the word woman?
TED CRUZ: Do—do-- you agree with this book that is being taught with kids that—that-- babies are racist?
JOSH HAWLEY: I want to—I want to-- try to understand here, is it your view that society is too hard on sex offenders?
Bolduan then held out hope that such criticisms will eventually go away: “So there is that, but you also hold up against the history that’s likely to be made today. Is all of that, what — what I just played, does all of that fade away after she's confirmed?”
For his part, Richmond declared: “Well, I would — I would hope not. I think it's important for people to see what black women have fought their entire lives as they have advanced and even with this historic moment and such a qualified woman, she still had to take the attacks, the mischaracterizations, some flat out lies that have been debunked in order to get to this moment and she persevered and so the only thing I can think of is that she channeled her inner ancestors and sat there with poise and dignity, almost as if she was a — a freedom fighter back in the Civil Rights movement.”
Apparently previous Supreme Court nominees have never had to deal with culture war questions. Only when Republicans do not get out of the way of “history” are such questions considered going too far.
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CNN At This Hour with Kate Bolduan
4/7/2022
11:24 AM ET
KATE BOLDUAN: It was—it was-- I'll call it a rough road to this point for Judge Jackson in some regard because of, for—for-- one reason in particular, because of some of the questions that she faced during confirmation hearings. I want to play this for everyone.
MARSHA BLACKBURN: Can you provide a definition for the word woman?
TED CRUZ: Do—do-- you agree with this book that is being taught with kids that—that-- babies are racist?
JOSH HAWLEY: I want to—I want to-- try to understand here, is it your view that society is too hard on sex offenders?
BOLDUAN: So there is that, but you also hold up against the history that’s likely to be made today. Is all of that, what—what-- I just played, does all of that fade away after she's confirmed?
CEDRIC RICHMOND: Well, I would—I would-- hope not. I think it's important for people to see what black women have fought their entire lives as they have advanced and even with this historic moment and such a qualified woman, she still had to take the attacks, the mischaracterizations, some flat out lies that have been debunked in order to get to this moment and she persevered and so the only thing I can think of is that she channeled her inner ancestors and sat there with poise and dignity, almost as if she was a—a-- freedom fighter back in the Civil Rights movement.
