‘All They Have is Racism!’ Elie Mystal Says Hardest Part of Jackson Hearings Will Be Not ‘Punching One Of These Fools In The Mouth’
Frequent MSNBC guest and Justice Correspondent for The Nation Elie Mystal went off on Republican critics of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying the most challenging part of her confirmation hearings will be “not getting out of her chair and punching one of these fools in the mouth.”
Republicans have intensified their attacks on President Joe Biden’s historic pick to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. On Saturday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Cross Connection, host Tiffany Cross played a clip of one such attack, from Tucker Carlson, and asked Mystal what he expects to see when the confirmation hearings start on Monday:
MS. CROSS: I’m curious, Elie, what do you anticipate to come out of these hearings? Because you know, they’re going to be vying for a viral moment on the Republican side. And what would you say is the biggest challenge to Judge Jackson’s confirmation, if any, given that Democrats have the majority?
MR. MYSTAL: The biggest challenge is her not getting out of her chair and punching one of these fools in the mouth. Like, that’s the hardest thing, because all they have for her right now is racism and disgusting innuendo. Like, they don’t have… They don’t have anything on her record.
She’s been on the court for nine years. She’s been on the federal bench for nine years. She’s issued hundreds and hundreds of cases. And you do not hear substantive legal arguments about her actual decision-making process coming from these people. All they’ve got is the racism, they want to know about the LSAT scores. Some of them are going to call her an affirmative action nominee. Some of them are going to ask her why she’s not sad that good white people were considered for the job. That’s literally what they have.
And then you have the Josh Hawley ridiculousness. But like, that’s, the challenge will just be keeping her cool because if she keeps her cool, which I’m sure she will do…. We’re talking about a high school debate champion and, you know, a person who has prepared her whole life for these four days. As long as she keeps her cool, she should do fine because she’s so eminently qualified and impeccably credentialed that they don’t really have anything on her.
Mystal went on to say that “I need the Democrats to get up there and defend her” from attacks like the one launched by Sen. Josh Hawley this week.
Watch above via MSNBC.
