Top Democrats are tamping down calls from liberal lawmakers to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for not recusing himself from cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
That despite text messages showing his wife pushing then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to fight to overturn the presidential election results.
Democrats have voiced strong concerns that Ginni Thomas’s correspondences with conservative lawmakers’ offices and Meadows ahead of the riot pose a conflict of interest, with a growing number arguing Clarence Thomas should step aside in cases pertaining to the 2020 election.
While concerns remain, senior Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi have indicated that impeachment is an unlikely course of action. The California Democrat told members that it’s “up to an individual justice to decide to recuse himself if his wife is participating in a coup” during a House Democratic Caucus meeting on Tuesday morning.
Another senior Democratic lawmaker told the Washington Examiner they “don’t think” the push for impeachment has any teeth to it.
Booting Thomas from the Supreme Court seat he has held since 1991 would be a near-impossible task. Even if the Democratic-majority House impeached Thomas by a majority vote, not a sure thing in a closely divided chamber, the Senate would effectively prove a political brick wall. There, two-thirds of senators would be required to convict Thomas and remove him from office. The Senate is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris providing the tiebreaking vote for Democrats.
So Thomas, appointed by a Republican president and a darling of the Right, would have more than enough cushion to survive, all the while being made a political martyr for Republicans as the November midterm elections approach.
Pelosi’s comments seeming to tamp down the prospect of a Thomas impeachment came in the wake of far-left “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raising the prospect. The New York Democrat said on Tuesday that Thomas should either be impeached or step down. Several House Democrats made similar calls, including Reps. Veronica Escobar of Texas, Hank Johnson of Georgia, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Nydia Velazquez of New York.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries said he believes the Jan. 6 select committee should continue looking into Ginni Thomas’s level of involvement in the Jan. 6 episode. The House Judiciary Committee should potentially look into the issue, Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday.
“It is deeply troubling that the wife of a Supreme Court justice appears to have been intimately involved in peddling the big lie, perhaps fanning the flames of the insurrection, and being involved in issues that clearly falls before the jurisdiction of a member of the United States Supreme Court,” Jeffries said.
THOMAS SHOULD NOT RECUSE HIMSELF ON JAN. 6 SUPREME COURT CASES, MCCARTHY SAYS
A bicameral group of 22 Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington state sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday demanding answers on whether Thomas was violating federal ethics law. They noted he was the sole dissenter in the Supreme Court’s ruling that former President Donald Trump could not use executive privilege to block the select committee from receiving documents related to Jan. 6.
While Democrats have sounded the alarm on Thomas’s ability to remain impartial on Jan. 6-related cases, Republicans have defended his decision not to recuse himself.
“No, I think Justice Thomas can make his decisions like he’s made them every other time,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters during a press conference during the House GOP retreat on Friday.
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“It’s his decision based upon law. If you spent any time studying the Supreme Court justice, he’s one who studies correctly,” said McCarthy, a California Republican. “If he sees it’s not upholding the Constitution, he’ll rule against it. If it’s the Constitution, that’s what his job should be. It’s him.”
