I Can’t Believe Dick Durbin Had the Nerve to Say This

On Monday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) feigned outrage at Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for having the audacity to question Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson about her record. But most astounding was when Durbin, the chairman of the committee, denounced them for accusing Jackson of “vile things” during her confirmation hearings.

“On the whole, my Republican colleagues, starting with my ranking member, Senator Grassley, treated the nominee with dignity and respect. They promised not to turn this confirmation process into a court circus, and most kept that promise,” Durbin began, though you could sense the crocodile tears coming. “Some, however, did not,” he averred.

“Instead they repeatedly interrupted and badgered Judge Jackson and accused her of vile things in front of her parents, her husband, and her children,” he continued.

“Judge Jackson is a better person than me.”

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) lauded Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s temperament while criticizing behavior from some GOP members of the Judiciary Committee during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. pic.twitter.com/K4WqJIsCuu

— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2022

Oh, really? Did Republicans accuse Judge Jackson of sexual assault or of being a gang rapist? Oh, right — it was Brett Kavanaugh, against whom Democrats made those accusations. For what purpose? To delay his confirmation until after the 2018 midterm elections in the hopes that Democrats would retake the majority and force Trump to nominate someone else to the court. They pulled this maneuver after attempting every possible trick in the book to delay the confirmation. When those failed, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who had been sitting on the allegations for weeks, dropped the bombshell claims at the 11th hour, causing the biggest Supreme Court confirmation circus perhaps in history. Democrats then questioned Kavanaugh about his high school yearbooks and calendars, treating him as guilty by default.

Meanwhile, Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford’s story was so full of holes that even witnesses she named in her statements said the alleged assault at a high school party never took place. Nevertheless, Democrats celebrated Ford’s bravery and legitimized her obviously bogus story, as well as the stories of other accusers who managed to have even weaker accusations than Ford’s.

Durbin himself participated in the shame. “The White House and Senate Republicans rigged the investigation of sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh so the FBI couldn’t follow the facts where they led,” he tweeted on Oct. 4, 2018. “This does a disservice to Dr. Ford, Deborah Ramirez, all sexual assault survivors, and the American people.”

The White House and Senate Republicans rigged the investigation of sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh so the FBI couldn’t follow the facts where they led. This does a disservice to Dr. Ford, Deborah Ramirez, all sexual assault survivors, and the American people.

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) October 4, 2018

Let’s be honest here: the Democrats knew the accusations against Kavanaugh were bogus, but they didn’t care. They wanted to thwart his nomination, or at the very least delay it until after the midterms. They didn’t care about ruining his life. They didn’t care how weak Ford’s accusations were. They certainly didn’t care that his wife and two young daughters had to sit and watch the vile accusations get drawn out for weeks in front of a national audience.

And Durbin has the audacity to compare that to legitimate questions about Jackson’s record of lenient sentences for child pornographers?