Dick Durbin Accuses Republicans of Prejudice Against ‘Harvard Grad, Black Woman’

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) accused Republicans Wednesday of attacking Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson because of a “stereotype” against a “Harvard grad, black woman” during her confirmation hearing.

Durbin opened the third day of hearings by using his opening statement to attack Republicans for their questions the day before, implying that they were motivated by racist and sexist prejudice against the nominee.

“You made a mess of their stereotype,” he said, accusing Republicans of trying to portray Judge Jackson as of on crime for political and racist motives. “The endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association Chief of Police doesn’t fit with their stereotype of a Harvard grad, black woman who is aspiring to the highest court in the land.”

Notably, Judge Jackson herself declined to offer a definition of the word “woman” when asked by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

Durbin told her that “your nomination turned out to an testing ground for conspiracy theories and culture war theories.”

He also claimed, falsely, that Republicans had attacked Judge Jackson’s family by scrutinizing the use of Critical Race Theory in the Georgetown Day School on whose board she sits. He added, again falsely, that Republicans said Judge Jackson should not have served as a public defender, or representing Guantánamo Bay terror detainees.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) specifically said that he did not object to her offering her services, but to the policy of releasing terror detainees.

Durbin also attempted, for the second day in a row, to undermine questions about Jackson’s record as a judge in criminal cases.

He attacked Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for scrutinizing Judge Jackson’s record on sex offenders, and claimed that Hawley “refused to acknowledge” that a judge he supported had also deviated from sentencing guidelines in one particular case, as if that resolved questions about Jackson’s rulings in a wide variety of cases and her stated views on the subject. Durbin tried shifting blame to Congress for the lack of clarity in sentencing guidelines, saying Judge Jackson should not be held responsible.

Several Republicans interjected to complain about Durbin “editorializing” from the chair after their rounds of questioning.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.