Lindsey Graham slammed for buffoonish questioning of Biden’s Supreme Court nominee
On Tuesday, March 22 — the second day of Senate confirmation hearings for President Joe Biden’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson — one of the GOP senators who questioned her was Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Graham was big on theatrics, grilling Jackson on everything from her religious views to her Gitmo detainees. And those theatrics are inspiring a lot of reactions on Twitter.
When Graham asked Jackson about her religious views, she responded that she is a “non-denominational Protestant”—and Graham went off on a tangent, implying that Justice Amy Coney Barrett was treated unfairly because of her religious views.
Here\u2019s Lindsey Graham grilling KBJ about her faith (to tee about a gripe about Feinstein\u2019s infamous \u201cdogma\u201d comment to Barrett).\n\n\u201cWhat faith are you, by the way?\u201d\n\u201cCould you fairly judge a Catholic?\u201d\n\u201cOn a scale of 1 to 10, how faithful would you say you are?\u201dpic.twitter.com/5HaHGOYy0m— Mark Joseph Stern (@Mark Joseph Stern) 1647960835
Sen. Graham: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how faithful would you say you are in terms of religion?"\n\nJudge Jackson: "I am reluctant to talk about my faith in this way...I want to be mindful of the need for the public to have confidence in my ability to separate out my personal views."pic.twitter.com/rFgaH3ZLcq— CBS News (@CBS News) 1647962830
Graham was especially performative when he ranted about Gitmo prisoners who were captured during the George W. Bush years, saying, “It wouldn’t bother me one bit if 39 of them die in prison. That’s a better outcome than letting them go.”
Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC: "Did you ever accuse in one of your habeas petitions the government of acting as war criminals for holding the [Gitmo] detainees?"\n\nJudge Brown Jackson: "Senator, I do not remember that accusation..."pic.twitter.com/spZQu67qtG— Townhall.com (@Townhall.com) 1647962113
Sen. Dick Durbin after Sen. Lindsey Graham goes off about Guantanamo Bay prisoners: 'The president of your own party released them'\n\nGraham: \u2018Look at the freaking Afghan government, it\u2019s made up of former detainees \u2026 This whole thing by the left about this war ain\u2019t working\u2019pic.twitter.com/7TaOk0k34U— NowThis (@NowThis) 1647963534
In response to Graham's questioning of Jackson, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, who Graham defeated in 2020's U.S. Senate race in South Carolina, tweeted:
Lindsey Graham has been a lawyer for a long time and knows damn well that a lawyer\u2019s brief on behalf of an attorney is the client\u2019s position & not the personal position of the attorney.— Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair) 1647962374
Mary Trump, niece of former President Donald Trump and a vehement critic of her uncle, had no kind words for Graham:
I know this is an evergreen tweet but Lindsay Graham can fuck right off.— Mary L Trump (@Mary L Trump) 1647960190
MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan posted:
Graham now complaining about double standards - yeah, there are. Republicans blocked Merrick Garland during an election year while confirming Amy Coney Barrett.— Mehdi Hasan (@Mehdi Hasan) 1647960609
Also Graham's analogy is typically dishonest. Alito was attacked for being a member of a group that was considered an extreme *group*. Jackson is a member of a very respectable group which included, according to him, one bad member/speaker. \n\nNot the same. \n\nObviously.— Mehdi Hasan (@Mehdi Hasan) 1647960746
Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York commented:
Weird that Lindsey Graham hasn\u2019t figured out that the reason Ketanji Brown Jackson\u2019s nomination is less controversial than Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s is because she hasn\u2019t been accused of sexual assault.— Mondaire Jones (@Mondaire Jones) 1647878203
Here are some more responses to Graham’s antics during his questioning of Jackson:
I swear there have to be better candidates to represent South Carolina than Lindsey Graham. It is time to have term limits in Congress— Janice Johnson (@Janice Johnson) 1647961955
Witness @LindseyGrahamSC say that he and the fellow Republicans are just fine with being considered a racist. We already knew that Lindz, but thanks for saying it with your chest. Nice mention of insurrectionist @HawleyMO, too! pic.twitter.com/lMIi4fbalS— yvette nicole brown (@yvette nicole brown) 1647877582
Does not matter to right wingers. He\u2019s \u201cscoring points\u201d.— David Daydodge (@David Daydodge) 1647960829
