Politics

Ketanji Brown Jackson Would Have Defended Nazis in Court? Anything There? Asks Desperate Tom Cotton

Senate Republicans are scrambling to smear President Biden's Supreme Court nominee ahead of her expected confirmation

April 5, 2022

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 4: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting to vote on Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Capitol Hill, April 4, 2022 in Washington, DC. A confirmation vote from the full Senate will come later this week. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images). — Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting to vote on Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Capitol Hill, on April 4, 2022, in Washington, D.C. Getty Images

Ketanji Brown Jackson is almost certainly going to become the first Black woman to be confirmed to the Supreme Court later this week. Senate Democrats appear to be united in supporting President Biden’s nominee, and three Republican senators — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney — have said they will support her.

The only recourse of Senate Republicans who oppose Jackson’s confirmation is to make their arguments against her as ludicrous as possible — ostensibly as part of a last-ditch effort to get their moderate colleagues to rethink their position, but in reality as a last-ditch effort to get invited onto one of Fox News’ primetime shows to talk about it.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) decided on Tuesday that he’d go ahead and suggest Jackson may have defended the Nazis in court. “You know the last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the Nazis,” he said, referring to Justice Robert Jackson. “This Judge Jackson may have gone there to defend them.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) literally says Ketanji Brown Jackson might have defended Nazis at Nuremberg:

"The last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis. This Judge Jackson might have gone there to defend them." pic.twitter.com/K0eHZ56sGY

— The Recount (@therecount) April 5, 2022

Somehow, this may not even be the most ridiculous argument Republicans are pushing in their effort to take down Jackson. Cotton and others, most notably Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo., have for weeks been trying to portray Jackson as pro-pedophile because she strayed from sentencing guidelines in some child pornography cases. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) pointed out on Monday that straying from such guidelines is common, and that Hawley has voted to confirm multiple conservative justices who have done so on similar cases.

Nevertheless, the idea has spread throughout right-wing media and conspiracy circles. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Monday night tweeted that Sens. Collins, Murkowski, and Romeny, and by proxy the entire Democratic caucus, are “pro-pedophile” for supporting Jackson.

The Senate will vote on whether to confirmed Jackson on Thursday or Friday. We doubt Cotton’s attempt to tie her to Nazis is the last we’ll hear from Republicans on the matter.