'The View' hosts complain about GOP's treatment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
The hosts of "The View" complained about Republican senators treatment of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
No platform has depicted the media's glaring shift between how Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been treated this week versus what Justice Brett Kavanaugh went through than "The View."
President Biden's nominee has received glowing coverage as her historic confirmation will result in her becoming the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in the land.
While Democrats rolled out the red carpet for Jackson, several Senate Republicans grilled the progressive nominee, most notably on her sentencing record on child pornography crimes. And that was a bridge too far for the ABC daytime program.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 23, 2022, during her confirmation hearing. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
"View" co-host Sara Haines dinged Democrats for not doing enough to defend Jackson in combating what she described as the "misinformation" being peddled by Republicans, linking such lines of questioning a "dog whistle to QAnon."
"I'm kind of shocked about it because I feel like if they're so concerned about pedophilia and sex crimes, Why didn’t they want to hear the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh?" Whoopi Goldberg asked.
Goldberg was alluding to the sexual assault allegations that surfaced during Kavanaugh's confirmation in 2018, most prominently from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged Kavanaugh and his friend attacked her at a house party in the 1980s when they were teenagers.
What Goldberg failed to acknowledge was that Ford did testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during Kavanaugh's confirmation.
"Democrats seem to always fall back on decency," Sunny Hostin said. "You know the old Michelle Obama, 'When they go low, we go high." I think when they go low, we need to go to the Earth's crust. I think we need to get small like ant, and I think we need to use the facts to our advantage."
"Look- she's getting in. She's getting in. She's getting in. That's all we need to say. She deserves to be there, she earned the right to be there and nothing you can say, unless you have something that actually proves her to be unfit, will stop this from happening," Goldberg shouted to the camera.
Earlier in the week, Joy Behar compared Jackson to former President Obama, saying how the two of them are "perfect" and "had nothing wrong going on."
"So what you have here are 50 senators who are going to vote against this woman, who is above reproach, the first Black woman in that position. That is going to be on their record, and that’s why they’re asking these dumb questions," Behar said.
ABC's "The View" co-host Joy Behar.
Both Haines and Hostin believe the American people were "robbed" of a hearing that Jackson deserved because of the Republicans' inquires with Hostin telling her colleagues she cried "the ugly cry" because she knows how hard it was for her "to get where she is."
"I cried because my daughter now will see this because my cousins now will see this and little girls all around the country will see this. But I will say that I agree with, you know, we're being robbed of really what she should be asked, which is about judicial philosophy… I think that it's unfortunate that Republicans are taking this opportunity to air grievances," Hostin said.
During the Kavanaugh confirmation, Behar repeatedly suggested the Trump nominee was "guilty." Hostin insisted that Dr. Ford's allegations were "very credible" and "extremely important" ahead of Kavanaugh's lifetime appointment. Following her testimony, Hostin declared that Dr. Ford was "150 percent credible" and that Kavanaugh wasn't nearly credible as his accuser.
Hostin, a former attorney, also argued that "you don't need corroborating evidence" to prove a sexual assault in court.
"Testimony is evidence! You don't need corroborating evidence. You don't need a rape kit. You don't need witnesses because oftentimes, guess what? There are no witnesses during rape! When you're talking about evidence, testimonial evidence is the very best in the system!" Hostin exclaimed.
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"The View" even welcomed disgraced anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti by phone to tout his client Julie Swetnick, whose allegation of being gang-raped by Kavanaugh was widely considered as non-credible following extensive vetting of her claim.
Disgraced anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
The way the ABC daytime talk show covered both Jackson and Kavanaugh's confirmations is reflective of how the media at large portrayed the two nominees.
The Washington Post editorial board urged the Senate to vote "no" against Kavanaugh, citing his "partisan instincts" and "possible misdeeds in the past."
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"We continue to believe that Ms. Ford is a credible witness with no motivation to lie. It is conceivable that she and Mr. Kavanaugh are both being truthful, in the sense that he has no memory of the event. It is also conceivable that Ms. Ford’s memory is at fault. We wish the FBI had been allowed to probe Mr. Kavanaugh’s credibility more fully. But our conclusion about Mr. Kavanaugh’s fitness does not rest on believing one side or the other," the board wrote at the time. "If Mr. Kavanaugh truly is, or believes himself to be, a victim of mistaken identity, his anger is understandable. But he went further in last Thursday’s hearing than expressing anger… [H]e poisoned any sense that he could serve as an impartial judge. Democrats or liberal activists would have no reason to trust in his good faith in any cases involving politics. Even beyond such cases, his judgment and temperament would be in doubt."
The New York Times placed side-by-side images of Ford and Kavanaugh on the front page of the paper with her looking calm during her testimony while portraying him as angry.
FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo, then Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, pauses while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kavanaugh's confirmation is a flashpoint for the November midterms. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
The scorched-earth approach to Kavanaugh's confirmation didn't stop with the media. Several Democratic lawmakers took the same approach.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. suggested Kavanaugh not requesting the FBI to investigate Ford's claims is a not behavior of "an innocent person." Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. went even further, saying he "bears the burden of disproving these allegations."
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Before Justice Kavanaugh was tapped for the highest court, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, declared she was a "no" vote, saying "it doesn’t matter who [President Trump] is putting forward" after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement.
This week, the Washington Post editorial board argued that Jackson was treated "worse" by Republicans than Kavanaugh was treated by Democrats.
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
"A woman credibly accused Mr. Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Democrats rightly asked the committee to investigate. After a superficial FBI review, Republicans pressed forward his nomination. In the end, it was Mr. Kavanaugh who behaved intemperately, personally attacking Democratic senators and revealing partisan instincts that raised questions about his commitment to impartiality," the Post board wrote. "By contrast, Republicans have smeared Judge Jackson based on obvious distortions of her record and the law. Mr. Graham and others painted her as a friend of child pornographers, despite the fact that her sentences in their cases reflect the judicial mainstream."
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"Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) congratulated the Democrats on running a fair hearing… Unfortunately, their colleagues’ antics distracted from their more productive questioning, and from what should have been the order of the day: recognizing the historic nomination of the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court and using the opportunity to probe thorny legal questions in good faith," the board added.
Perhaps the double standard was captured perfectly by "The View" guest co-host Ana Navarro, who claimed this week that both Justices Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas were "credibly accused" of sexual misconduct. And when Sunny Hostin provided viewers a "legal note" saying that both deny the allegations, Navarro sarcastically quipped, "Of course, they did."