Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) had another theatrical moment on Wednesday, breaking into tears at the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.
When questioning Ketanji Jackson, Booker said he would not let anyone in the senate steal from him the joy he feels over the nomination of the first black woman to the Supreme Court. He said this in response to the litany of questions that Republicans had directed at the judge regarding her alleged leniency on child pornography.
“You got here how every Black woman in America who’s gotten anywhere has done. Like Ginger Rogers said, ‘I did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels,’” he said. “Nobody’s stealing my joy.” He also stated, “I’m in my joy; I can’t help it.”
Booker also recalled how a black woman approached him while jogging to say how much it meant to her to see Ketanji Brown Jackson nominated to the Supreme Court:
Later in the proceeding, a choked-up Booker told Ketanji Brown, who was also fighting back tears, that he becomes “full of emotion” when he looks at her.
“You’re a person who is so much more than your race and gender,” the tearful Booker said, adding:
You’re a Christian. You’re a mom. You’re an intellect. You love books. But for me, I’m sorry, it’s hard for me not to look at you and see my mom, not to see my cousins, one of them, who had to come here and sit behind you. She had to have your back. I see my ancestors and yours.
“Nobody is gonna steal that joy,” he said. “You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American. You’re here. And I know what it’s taken for you to sit in that seat.”
The senator continued by recalling that there were laws in America that would have prevented her from becoming a Supreme Court justice and even would have prevented her from having an interracial marriage:
Booker has a tendency to use Supreme Court confirmations for theatrics, such as when he infamously likened himself to the character Spartacus during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.
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