Politics

‘You Will Not Be Vilified’: Graham Takes Shot At Democrats Who Went After Kavanaugh During Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearing

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Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham promised Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday that she would not be “vilified” during Senate hearings the same way Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was.

“The hearings are going to be challenging for you, informative for the public and respectful by us,” Graham began. “I hope we can meet those criteria. It won’t be a circus, we’re off to a good start, Chairman Grassley couldn’t get the first word out of his mouth before they shut down the place so that’s off to a good start. Most of us couldn’t go back to our offices during Kavanaugh without getting spit on, hope that doesn’t happen to y’all.”

Graham said the hearing would be about philosophy and not the “historic nature of the pick,” pointing to conservative candidates of color who were not confirmed to judicial positions by the Senate under previous administrations.

“Bottom line here is when it is about philosophy, when it is someone of color on our side, it’s about we’re all racists if we ask hard questions, it’s not gonna fly with us,” he added. “We’re used to it by now, so it’s not gonna matter a bit.” (RELATED: President Biden’s Supreme Court Nominee Judge Jackson And The Firearm Industry)

Graham said Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley should go forward and ask Jackson about her record as district court judge, which has recently come under fire from conservative over her rulings in cases involving child pornography.

“Now, when we say this is not Kavanaugh, what do we mean? It means that the Democratic senators are not gonna have their windows busted by groups. It means that no Republican senator is going to unleash on you an attack about your character when the hearing is virtually over,” he said. “None of us, I hope, have been sitting on information about you as a person, for weeks or months. You come into our offices and we never share it with you to allow you to give your side of the story, we wait until the very last minute when the hearing is about to be gavel concluded and say ‘oh by the way, I’ve got this letter.’ It so happens that every media outlet in the country had the letter too, so the next morning there were headlines all over the country really accusing Judge Kavanaugh of being basically Bill Cosby.”

“None of us are going to do that to you. And if any of us does that to you, all hell will break out, and it should … there won’t be this constant attack on you like Judge Kavanaugh.”

Graham then promised Jackson her life would not be turned upside down like Kavanaugh’s was.

“The one thing I can promise you, you will not be vilified, you will not be attacked for your religious views, you will not be accused of something that you could not defend yourself against until it was too late.”