While most Republicans asked challenging but respectful questions of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, during her confirmation hearings, “three or four Republican senators went over the line,” Sen. Dick Durbin said Tuesday.
In her confirmation hearing last week, Jackson faced questions from Republicans that ranged from serious to brutal on topics including her sentencing record as a trial judge. Some Republicans, notably Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, characterized Jackson as lenient in some cases involving child pornography offenses. Jackson and her supporters said her sentencing record is within legal norms.
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Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is both the Senate majority whip and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during a Senate Democratic leadership press conference that “the majority of the Republican senators I thought handled it properly and did it in a professional way, consistent with the aspiration she has to serve the highest court in the land.”
“Their questions were tough, they’re supposed to be, and she answered them forthright,” Durbin said. “I respect them very much.”
Without naming names, Durbin said there were “three or four Republican senators” who “went over the line as far as I’m concerned.”
“They may have thought they were scoring points, but they were only scoring points on the QAnon website,” Durbin said. “The American people watched it and said they went too far, and they were right.”
Durbin argued that no one questioned Jackson’s qualifications or her resume.
“She’s an extraordinary legal scholar and judge with a great experience coming to this job,” he said.
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Republicans on the Judiciary Committee delayed the consideration of Jackson’s nomination until April 4. If confirmed, Jackson would make history as the first black woman to serve on the high court.
