On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox News @ Night,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) reacted to critics on the left warning Republicans about the dangers of opposing the historic nomination of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson by stating that “It’s only historic” when it’s someone people on the left like and agree with.
Lee said, “That’s interesting. Because they didn’t, apparently, feel the same way when Clarence Thomas was being nominated, when Clarence Thomas, one of the most decent human beings ever to serve in the federal judiciary, one of the most decent people I know, who was attacked by the left, attacked by some of those same Democratic senators who were making those same comments today, they didn’t call his nomination historic. It’s only historic when it’s someone they like and with whom they agree. They didn’t say that when they were looking at the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit or of Miguel Estrada to that same court. They just do that when it’s someone they happen to agree with, who matches their leftist political ideology.”
He added, “We remember the fact that it was Joe Biden who promised to filibuster the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to be on the D.C. Circuit.”
One of the critics Lee was reacting to, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), voted against Thomas’ confirmation, voted no on the cloture and confirmation votes for Brown, and opposed cloture for Estrada. Then-Sen. Biden also opposed the confirmations of Brown, Estrada, and Thomas and filibustered the nominations of Brown and Estrada.
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