Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) gave us another amusing demonstration of his ability to humiliate Joe Biden’s unqualified judicial nominees during Wednesday's confirmation hearing.
United States District Judge Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois, who has been nominated by Joe Biden for a spot on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, had previously signed a brief supporting a ban on "assault weapons" in Illinois state courts in the 2010s, yet, when he asked her to define "assault weapons,” she couldn’t.
“You said, ‘assault weapons may be banned because they’re extraordinarily dangerous and are not appropriate for legitimate self-defense purposes,’” Kennedy said. “Tell me what you meant by assault weapons.”
“Just to clarify there, I was local counsel—” Maldonado said
“But you wrote the brief, tell me what you meant by assault weapons,” he pressed.
“Senator Kennedy, I actually I did not write the brief. The brief was written by—"
“You signed the brief, though, didn’t you?"
“Correct, I signed the brief,” she conceded.
“When you sign a brief you're testifying to the court that everything in it is true, right?"
Maldonado also agreed with Kennedy’s characterization that as far as the court is concerned, since she signed the brief, the words were hers.
“Tell me what you meant by assault weapons,” Kennedy said.
“So, I am not a gun expert,” Maldonado responded. "And at the time, that brief I think was about ten years ago—"
Kennedy followed up by pointing out that she gave the court advice, essentially claiming to be an expert and advised that assault weapons should be banned.
"Just tell me what you wanted to ban,” he told her.
For the left, “assault weapon" has become a catch-all term used to evoke fear as they push for stricter gun control measures. Yet, they repeatedly prove they have no idea what an “assault weapon” is. The term is generally applied to semi-automatic firearms with certain cosmetic features, such as pistol grips, folding stocks, or barrel shrouds, and not so much based on the weapon's actual functionality or firepower. In other words, the push to ban “assault weapons” is based on a misconception of what they are, and because they just look scarier than other weapons.
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One might think that after being repeatedly embarrassed by their lack of understanding of the firearms they want to ban that the left would actually attempt to learn something about them so they can at least pretend to care about the facts.
After Maldonado reiterated that she didn’t write the brief and didn't remember the "exact definition of assault weapons in the ordinance that was at issue,” Kennedy really let her have it.
“So you submitted a brief, an appellate brief, you signed it, and you don’t know and… you said abolish 'assault weapons,' and you don’t know what you wanted them to abolish?”
You can watch the entire exchange here:
WATCH:@SenJohnKennedy: “You said, ‘assault weapons may be banned because they’re extraordinarily dangerous and are not appropriate for legitimate self-defense purposes.’ Tell me what you meant by assault weapons?”
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) March 20, 2024
Biden’s Seventh Circuit judge nominee Nancy Maldonado: “I’m not… pic.twitter.com/1ctY2E64IO
Earlier this year, Kennedy humiliated another Biden nominee just by asking some simple questions about how the Court of Federal Claims works. Her nomination is still awaiting a confirmation vote. Another nominee withdrew from consideration after embarrassing herself when she couldn’t even answer Kennedy’s basic questions about the Constitution.
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