Amid the Senate confirmation hearings for President Joe Biden’s radical U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson this week, the left has been working overtime to take down Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, and it’s obvious why: The Missouri Republican’s questions about Jackson’s lenient track record on child porn offenders threaten Democrats’ goal of transforming the high court into a bench of reliable leftist activists.
Even before Jackson’s confirmation hearings officially began on Monday, the left’s information operation designed to discredit Hawley for daring to question Biden’s self-admitted affirmative action pick ramped up. When Hawley pointed out that Jackson has a history of going easy on criminals who possessed and distributed child pornography, he was smeared by the propaganda press, White House, and Democrats.
“Judge Jackson has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker. She’s been advocating for it since law school. This goes beyond ‘soft on crime.’ I’m concerned that this [is] a record that endangers our children,” Hawley tweeted last week.
Judge Jackson has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker. She’s been advocating for it since law school. This goes beyond “soft on crime.” I’m concerned that this a record that endangers our children
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 16, 2022
The federal sentencing guidelines are national, public, recommended to ALL federal judges, and set up by Congress
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 22, 2022
Immediately, despite Republicans’ promises that they would maintain “a fair, thorough hearing” unlike the one given to now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the left rushed to accuse Hawley of maligning Jackson’s character and record.
Hawley told his colleagues during Monday’s hearing that he enjoyed his time talking with the “enormously thoughtful” and “enormously accomplished” Jackson. Yet the same dishonest outlets and Democrats who worked to destroy Kavanaugh’s life and chances of becoming a justice have teamed up to bury Hawley’s concerns despite his constitutional duty to evaluate presidential nominees to the Supreme Court.
As The Federalist’s Rachel Bovard noted, “Democrats are already claiming that Hawley’s critique of Jackson’s judicial record rises to the same level as, say, entertaining completely unverified gang-rape allegations against a Supreme Court nominee.”
Corrupt Media Takes Its Cue
The White House first signaled its desire for Hawley’s explosive tweets to go away last week when it claimed that Jackson’s scandalous treatment of child porn offenders was just “cherry-picked elements of her record out of context,” language later wielded against Hawley by The Washington Post.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki disparaged Hawley in her daily press briefing, and Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates called the evidence of Jackson’s “soft on crime” track record “toxic and weakly-presented misinformation.”
WH Press Sec. Psaki asked if Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) attacking Judge Jackson will hurt chances of GOP votes on her SCOTUS nomination:
“I’m not sure that someone who refused to tell people whether or not he would vote for Roy Moore is an effective and credible messenger on this.” pic.twitter.com/RCeaGEJzXD
— The Recount (@therecount) March 17, 2022
The White House response, from @AndrewJBates46:
“This is toxic and weakly-presented misinformation that relies on taking cherry-picked elements of her record out of context – and it buckles under the lightest scrutiny.” https://t.co/N51nRmWwQ1
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) March 17, 2022
Bates also amplified a tweet from pro-Biden Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who accused Hawley of “going full QANON.”
Yikes. Also moronic to signal ahead he is going full QANON. But sure, try it. Go ahead.
— Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin 🇺🇦🇺🇦 (@JRubinBlogger) March 17, 2022
It wasn’t long after the administration expressed disdain with Hawley that the corporate media piled on. Leftist media figures, from Joy Reid to the conspiracy theorists at The View, jumped at the opportunity to launch false, politically motivated attacks against a Republican who openly opposed their choice for the court.
Elie Mystal accuses Josh Hawley of trying to get Ketanji Brown Jackson killed:
"He is trying to get violence done against a Supreme Court nominee." pic.twitter.com/3YAseuXfIu
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 19, 2022
Elie spitting pure truth about what’s coming for Ketanji Brown Jackson in her confirmation hearings. Didn’t realize she was the judge who sentenced the Pizzagate guy. Makes Josh Hawley’s attacks on her even more sinister. https://t.co/20uHOpvCQs
— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) March 19, 2022
Is this opinion supposed to be controversial? Josh Hawley spread the “big lie” and was one of the primary promoters of the January 6th insurrection against our democracy, He has shown no respect for the Constitution. Next. https://t.co/98J6kycPSM
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) March 19, 2022
The media insulted Hawley personally and even lied that his apprehensions about Jackson were “baseless” and stemmed from right-wing “extremism.”
Democrats Employ Press Propaganda
Even print outlets such as The Washington Post and National Review issued fake fact-checks that tried to rationalize lowering sentences and minimizing punishment for child porn offenders to make Hawley look bad. This negative Hawley coverage was in turn amplified by the White House and Senate Democrats.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted WaPo’s article to justify calling Hawley’s worries “false attacks.”
Lacking any effective basis to oppose Judge Jackson, her GOP opponents have resorted to false attacks. Three Pinocchios for the latest slop:
— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) March 19, 2022
This Vox article, which Bates tweeted, accused Hawley of “leveling a false and astonishing charge” against Jackson but later admitted that she “did, indeed, sentence these seven offenders to less time in prison than these sentencing guidelines recommend.”
“Josh Hawley’s latest attack on Ketanji Brown Jackson is genuinely nauseating” https://t.co/DtH2YD0mvE
— Andrew Bates (@AndrewJBates46) March 18, 2022
CNN, Reason, and HuffPost used similar tactics to justify Jackson’s lenient sentencing history and attack Hawley. And even National Review pushed against Hawley in an article then used by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin and Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
“Judge, there have been several news organizations that have taken a look at the Senator from Missouri’s charges. ABC News, CNN News, The Washington Post and others have concluded that they are inaccurate and unfair to you in their conclusions. In fact, one writer has said they are ‘meritless‘ to the point of unacceptable levels,” Durbin claimed during the confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Even before Jackson’s confirmation hearings began, the White House, Democrats, and the corrupt press were gearing up to take down and yell racist at anyone who scrutinized Biden’s nominee.
Hawley’s concerns are valid and deserve to be examined in Jackson’s confirmation hearings, but the left doesn’t like the opposition. When its foremost goal of radicalizing the nation’s highest court is threatened by Republicans digging up inconvenient information, it predictably resorts to coordinated attacks from Democrats and cronies in the media. Hawley is in the way, and so he must be flattened.
Source: The Federalist