Was Elizabeth Warren’s Call-Out of Chief Justice John Roberts ‘Brilliant’ or a ‘Dick Move’… or a Brilliant Dick Move?

Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren asked a polarizing question of Chief Justice John Roberts during Thursday’s impeachment proceeding, one which supporters are calling “brilliant” and critics are calling a “dick move,” among other things.

During Thursday’s session of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, Senator Warren had Roberts read the following question aloud: “At a time when large majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution?”

That provocative question, and the provocative act of having Roberts read the question himself, caused lots of hands to be wrung and pearls to be clutched, and even moved one Dan Drezner to remark that it was a quote-unquote “dick move.”

I confess not to knowing who Dan Drezner is — apart from the living embodiment of the old adage “If you have a blue check and you use ‘dick’ in your tweet you get the headline” (I think that was Mark Twain who said that) — but it seems pretty clear that accusing a candidate to be the first woman president of a “dick move” is, in and of itself, a dick move. Sexism is real.

Be that as it may, there were also many people who found the question “brilliant,” and probably lots of other compliments. The general sense I get is that those who liked the question felt that it brilliantly exposed the impeachment trial as a farce. Some found glee in the fact that Roberts looked piiiiissed.

So was it an ill-advised jab that made Roberts less likely to help Democrats out and backfired on Warren by forcing Adam Schiff to defend him, or was it a brilliant piece of political theater that dealt a crushing blow to public opinion?

I don’t think it was either.

Readers of this site know that I’ve made plenty of fair and factual criticisms of Senator Warren, but one of several areas in which she has shown near-perfect instincts is the issue of impeaching Trump.

When most Democrats were still getting their shit together on impeachment, Warren was crystal clear and nearly alone in daring Republicans to acquit Trump in the face of the Mueller report, an absolute moral and political imperative.

Since them, she’s been ahead of the curve on pressuring Republicans every step of the way. She was the only candidate to accuse Trump of factoring impeachment into his decision to strike Qasem Soleimani, five days before The Wall Street Journal published a report that Trump factored impeachment into his decision to strike Qasem Soleimani.

Having observed Warren closely on this issue, the question threw me at first, because her political instincts on this issue are too good for her to have not seen that Schiff would have to defend Roberts, and there are a million different ways to have phrased that question for similar sham-exposing effect.

But Warren gave a very clarifying interview this week — on SiriusXM’s Signal Boost, hosted by former Hillary Clinton senior staffers Jess McIntosh and Zerlina Maxwell — in which she spent the better part of the twenty minutes talking about impeachment in a way that demonstrated a deep understanding of the stakes involved, and of Roberts’ role in the trial.

Based on everything I know about Senator Warren, I don’t believe this question had anything to do with politics, with shaming Roberts and the Republicans in the eyes of Democratic and independent voters, with creating a viral moment that would benefit her politically. On the subject of how women are perceived and treated when they make strong moves like this, Warren is an expert.

No, I believe Senator Warren’s question was directed at an audience of one, with the purpose of shocking the conscience of Chief Justice Roberts, of bringing to vivid life the consequences of his inaction. If nothing else, if Republican Senate rules strip him of every power normally accorded a presiding judge, he has the power to open his goddamn mouth.

Warren’s application of defibrillator paddles to Roberts’ soul is unlikely to succeed, and as the reactions have shown, are unlikely to help her politically, but it was a risk that she found worth taking, and I’m glad she did.

Watch Chief Justice read Warren’s question above via CNN.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.