Better late than never. After CNN’s embarrassing initial response to the news of Brett Kavanaugh’s attempted assassination — which saw law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild say that the attacker didn’t have a weapon “at all” and that the threat could have come from “both sides” — Brianna Keilar and her panel on Thursday morning’s New Day finally called out Democratic leaders for their hypocrisy regarding political violence.
CNN political correspondent David Gregory began, “I mean, activism has its place, of course, speaking out has its place too, but to threaten a Supreme Court Justice and his family outside of his home is beyond the pale.”
But Gregory didn’t stop with a generalized platitude:
And the truth is that a lot of people on the left who are in political power are being so hypocritical about this. They lecture us all the time about the excesses of the right, including Donald Trump on January 6, fomenting mob violence, and yet they are out there countenancing — as they have with statements before — that it's okay to stand outside these people's homes.
Given the endless media hype surrounding January 6, comparing the words of Democratic leaders to it is a very, very harsh condemnation.
Keilar then played two clips from the past month, one of Jen Psaki saying that the White House does “encourage” the protests outside the Justices’ homes, and another of Chuck Schumer dismissing the protests, saying, “there's protests three, four times a week outside my house.”
Curiously absent from the clips was Schumer’s far more incendiary speech from 2020, where he told Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch that they would “pay the price” for overturning Roe vs. Wade and that “You won’t know what hit you.” Given that Justices are appointed for life, Schumer seems to have been calling for physical violence against the Justices.
After discussing a bill that is currently stalled in the House that would extend security protections from Justices to their families if deemed necessary, CNN’s chief national affairs analyst Kasie Hunt went for the jugular, “And sure, if you want to show up at the Supreme Court and protest — you know, maybe that's the place to do it, that's clearly not where Democratic leaders are right now and I think it's because of their base.”
Democratic leaders have used inciting rhetoric against conservatives for years, and now they seem to have, in the words of Chuck Schumer, “unleashed the whirlwind”: people who have seemingly listened to them are now willing to travel across the country to attempt to assassinate a Supreme Court Justice.
Gregory concluded by stating emphatically, “You can't keep tearing down these institutions and saying to people that they’re political actors and go protest them. You have to protect the Supreme Court as something that's above politics, even when there is politics involved in some of what they do, we gotta do that for their safety.”
We should not be as surprised as we are that this is being reported, but given that the rest of the media seems to either be downplaying or downright ignoring the second assassination attempt on a Supreme Court Justice in our nation’s history, seeing a group of CNN contributors finally take Democrats to task over their violent rhetoric is very refreshing.
This brief segment of due diligence was made possible by ADT Security Services and Abbott Laboratories. Their contact information is linked.
Click “Expand” to see the relevant transcript.
CNN’s New Day
06/09/22
7:13:45 AM ETBRIANNA KEILAR: Alright, let's bring in CNN anchor and chief national affairs analyst Kasie Hunt and CNN political analyst David Gregory. I think theoretically we were worried about threats and now we understand why there has been so much of a concern, David.
DAVID GREGORY: Absolutely, and this is horrifying. I mean, activism has its place, of course, speaking out has its place too, but to threaten a Supreme Court Justice and his family outside of his home is beyond the pale, cannot be tolerated, every politician has an obligation to stand up, condemn this, and to do something about it.
And the truth is that a lot of people on the left who are in political power are being so hypocritical about this. They lecture us all the time about the excesses of the right, including Donald Trump on January 6, fomenting mob violence, and yet they are out there countenancing — as they have with statements before — that it's okay to stand outside these people's homes.
KEILAR: Can we listen to that sound? This is former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
[Cuts to clips]
JEN PSAKI [White House press briefing, 05/10/22]: I know that there's an outrage right now, I guess, about — uh, protests that have been peaceful to date and we certainly continue to encourage that outside of judges' homes and that's the president's position.
CHUCK SCHUMER [press conference, 05/10/22]: If protests are peaceful, yes, my house is — there's protests three, four times a week outside my house. That's the American way to peacefully protest is okay, and I've been — that's my wife, sorry —
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER [press conference, 05/10/22]: She's protesting.
SCHUMER [press conference, 05/10/22]: Maybe there’s a protest outside.
[Laughter]
[Cuts back to live]
KEILAR: It's not a laughing matter as we're thinking about it now. Just to be clear those were statements made after that abortion draft was leaked weeks ago.
GREGORY: Right. But the problem is, uh — yes, peacefully protest but what's happening — I mean, I go back to, you know, Bill Clinton's admonition, right, about right-wing radio, “be careful on whose ears these messages fall.” You go outside someone's house, that is menacing when there's children there who are not protected by security. The Justices are, their families are not, and they're going off to school in the morning. It's intimidating.
And then you can have an instance here where you apparently have someone who by any — uh, you know, measure appears to not be mentally well, and is — uh, talking about suicidal ideation and turning himself in, but this is what can happen when you have this kind of intense incendiary atmosphere.
KEILAR: And also there is this House bill that's hung up. They could have acted on something to protect the family members as David talked about, it's not — it’s not been passed yet.
KASIE HUNT: Right, so the Senate unanimously said, okay, if the — you know, the Officers of the Court think that family members or other staff members need protection they should be able to call for that. It's still hung up in the House of Representatives. I think it's going to be important to watch what is the timing on this? I mean, we are expecting — you know, we're heading into the final days of the Court's session, always the most volatile and intense, we're expecting, obviously, a potentially earth-shattering decision on Roe vs. Wade, there's also some gun decisions coming out. And so I'd like to know whether that bill is likely to get through the House of Representatives before that happens. It's not right now on track to do that.
You know, and I think to David's point, too, there's no question, yes, peaceful protests are part of
being American, but there is a responsibility for people in leadership positions to talk to people who believe in them and who elected them about where is the line and where should we be drawing that line, especially when we're seeing political violence seep into more and more of our conversations, whether it's January 6th or what's going on with Brett Kavanaugh here. I mean, at what point do we say these people deserve, our public servants deserve to be able to live a private life in safety.
And sure, if you want to show up at the Supreme Court and protest — you know, maybe that's the place to do it, that's clearly not where Democratic leaders are right now and I think it's because of their base.KEILAR: We — we have a lot more to talk about ahead and I want to make sure that we leave room for it. I should just say real quickly Steny Hoyer did say relatively soon, but again, it’s not — there’s no hard and fast date for when this —
GREGORY: You can't keep tearing down these institutions and saying to people that they’re political actors and go protest them. You have to protect the Supreme Court as something that's above politics, even when there is politics involved in some of what they do, we gotta do that for their safety.
