Ben Sasse Calls Out ‘Jackassery’ of Senators Trying for Viral Videos — While Sitting Next to Ted Cruz
Senator Ben Sasse called out performative hijinks of his fellow senators during the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Wednesday afternoon. The fact that he was sitting next to Senator Ted Cruz, who was caught checking his Twitter mentions minutes after his over-the-top actions, made the comments even more pointed.
The comments came during an entirely logical plea for keeping cameras out of the Supreme Court to Judge Jackson, or at least an encouragement to the potential future Supreme Court Justice to let the highest court decide their fate on televising their proceedings. Last week, Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley introduced a bill to add cameras to the highest court.
“We’ve had a number of members of this committee comment on cameras in the court,” Sasse began. “I’ve made my position on this clear a lot of times that if I can give a tiny bit of friend of the court brief in advance because I think when you’re on the court and you all continue to debate this issue, I think it should be a decision for the Supreme Court to make about whether or not there are cameras in the courtroom, not a decision for the Article One branch to make for Article three.”
Sasse’s then argued how the presence of cameras typically brings out the worst in people and that any benefits of increased transparency would be hindered by the inevitable behavior of someone seeking a viral video.
“There’s a whole bunch of things that humans can do if they’re not immediately mindful of some distant camera audience that they might be trying to create a soundbite for,” Sasse continued. “Instagram can be useful for some small things, but for intellectual discourse, it is not a friend.”
He then appeared to call out the over-the-top behavior on full view in the previous days of hearings for Judge Jackson.
“We should recognize that the jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities,” Sasse said, while Senator Cruz sat nearby. “And it is definitely a second and third, and fourth-order of fact that the court should think through before it has advocates in there who are not only trying to persuade the nine justices but also trying to get on cable that night or create a viral video.”
As Sasse ended on “viral video,” Cruz whipped his head to Sasse as if to reveal his sudden realization that the Nebraska Senator may have been mocking his antics, though in a completely convivial manner.
Watch above via CBS News.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
