Joe Scarborough Admonishes Republicans Who Left Senate Chamber After KBJ Confirmation Vote: ‘Stand On Your Feet And Applaud!’
MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough slammed Republicans who left the Senate chamber while Democrats were standing and applauding following the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
Jackson was confirmed by the Senate, 53-47, on Thursday to be the first Black female to sit on the nation’s highest court.
During Friday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough admonished Republicans who walked out while Democrats were appreciating the history that was just made. However, Scarborough noted that “both parties treat each other despicably” and “treat these nominees despicably.”
As an example, Scarborough cited Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “acting abhorrently” toward Miguel Estrada, helping prevent him from being confirmed in the early 2000s to the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Estrada eventually withdrew from consideration.
Scarborough also referred to Janice Rogers Brown, a Black woman whom Schumer objected to confirming to the DC Circuit. It took two years for Brown to eventually be confirmed.
“But all of that aside. Let’s put all of that aside, okay. I am showing that, yes, both sides are horrific. I didn’t vote for Barack Obama. When Barack Obama got elected, I turned to the person I was with and I said, I didn’t vote for him, but what an incredible country we live in. I had chills,” said Scarborough. “Again, I thought he was too liberal. I didn’t … I could go down the list, but even in that moment I knew something really incredible had happened that made me proud to be an American, right?”
Scarborough lamented that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) for a “holding up of history” by delaying in casting his vote against Jackson’s nomination. He also called out Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for not being in the chamber to vote. Graham didn’t have a tie and therefore had to vote from the Senate cloakroom.
Scarborough continued:
But then afterwards, given our history as a station, given the way women have been treated, the way Black people have been treated, the way Black women have been treated, just as a matter of history, it’s a matter of fact, as much of a fact as this is a coffee cup, you don’t think more Republicans than Mitt Romney could have stayed in the chamber, taken to their feet and applauded the moment even if they didn’t agree with her judicial philosophy?
And I’m sure I don’t agree with a lot of her judicial philosophy, but you know what I agree in? This country, despite all of our problems, despite our screw ups, we’re still stumbling toward being a more perfect union. A moment like that, damn it, stand on your feet and applaud.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
