Over the weekend, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-1/1024th of a Plan) slandered President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees in a moment not unlike Hillary Clinton’s infamous attack on Trump voters as fitting into a “basket of deplorables.”
Speaking at the “We the People” forum hosted by various liberal groups including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Common Cause, End Citizens United, MoveOn, and the NAACP, Warren echoed 12 other Democrat-aligned senators who have launched inquisitions into the faith of Trump judicial nominees.
“I think what’s at the heart of it is who you ask to be a judge, who you want on your list to be a judge. And I’ll tell you what the answer’s been for Donald Trump because I’ve seen these guys. Homophobic, that’s in. Racist, that’s in. Sexist, oh yeah, most definitely. And anti-voter,” Warren declared.
“I don’t mean, we have kind of a sense that those people are. I mean look at their written records. Look at the activities they are already engaged in,” she claimed.
WARREN on Judges nominated by Trump: “Homophobic, that's in. Racist, that's in. Sexist most definitely. And anti-voter.. I don't mean, we have kind of a sense that those people are. I mean look at their written records. Look at the activities they are already engaged in.” pic.twitter.com/rf8NICLOXO
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 20, 2020
Warren provided no evidence to convict Trump’s judges of these various forms of bigotry, but she did echo her fellow senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
In 2017, Sanders asked Russell Vought, a Trump administration nominee, whether he considered Muslims unable to go to heaven since he believes Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation. Vought had expressed that opinion in an article written in his private capacity. Sanders asked Vought if the statement of faith of Wheaton College, Vought’s alma mater, was “Islamophobic” and whether non-Christians can go to heaven. The nominee explained that this position on salvation is his belief as a Christian.
“I would simply say, Mr. Chairman, that this nominee is really not someone who is what this country is supposed to be about,” Sanders declared, insisting that he would “vote no.”
Other Democrats have vilified Trump judges for speaking at events hosted by Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian law firm responsible for many Supreme Court victories that has been falsely accused of being a “hate group” by the far-left smear factory the Southern Poverty Law Center. Al Franken, who has since resigned, slammed Judge Amy Coney Barrett for speaking at an ADF event, even comparing ADF to the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot.
It is one thing for Warren to disagree with the records of Trump’s judicial nominees. It is something entirely different for her to slander the more than 150 judges the president has duly appointed as all bigoted.
Yet it gets worse. Trump has selected originalist judges who will apply the law according to the original public meaning of the Constitution. By slandering these judges, Warren is suggesting that only activist judges who push her interpretation of the law are safe from the charge that they are homophobic, racist, sexist, anti-voter, et cetera. It is not a judge’s job to remake the law in his or her own image, but Warren is insinuating that only bigots apply the law faithfully.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
