To help him get elected, President Biden used identity politics to promise to nominate an African woman to the Supreme Court. CNN senior political reporter Abby Phillip reacted to this fact and Neue Day On Wednesday host Brianna Keilar pointed out that it was in fact Republicans who were engaging in identity politics.
Keilar portrayed Biden’s pledge as a matter of historic justice: “…for so much time African-American women have been discounted simply because they are black women. And yet I think righting that wrong, look, whether or not these senators agree with her on — on her merits or where she is in her judicial views, it just seems like a weird, kind of, hill to stake a claim on.”
For Phillip, it was not just that Republicans were playing identity politics and Biden isn’t, but that the GOP is playing White identity politics: “…the Republican Party right now is running against what they call identity politics, but they’re doing it by running on white identity politics. Telling white Americans that they are being discriminated against by efforts to level the playing field for non-white people. That’s a core — that’s core to the Republican Party’s platform right now.”
She disputed her claims immediately, however.
But interestingly, we’ve also seen Republicans using this idea of a black woman being put on the Supreme Court to drive a wedge between Hispanic voters and the Democratic Party. They are advertising to Latinos saying to them, ‘it’s racist against you that Biden would say he would put a black woman on the Court.’ Again, the Republican Party is running against identity politics by running toward identity politics, and so you have to really be clear-eyed about what’s happening here.
Philip continued, “This is not about eliminating race as an idea, it’s about speaking to race, but for certain people. And in a lot of ways it’s about isolating black voters and saying–saying–to white voters and even Latino voters, Democrats are giving unfair advantages to black voters.”
After Philip claimed that Biden’s pledge is no different than Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump pledging to nominate a woman, Keilar returned to wrap up the segment, “Yeah, it — it’s a justification of closing the door on including all voices at the table. It’s — it’s just perplexing to me.”
It is not that perplexing if Keilar was familiar with the general conservative assessment of Sandra Day O’Connor’s time on the Court and Neue Day CNN tried to discredit criticisms of the nominee, but she wasn’t alone. Don Lemon heard from Laura Coates late Tuesday night, that criticism of the eventual nominee “should be ignored given their expertise and respect.”
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The transcript of the show on February 23, 2009 is available here:
CNN John Berman, Brianna Keilar and New Day
2/23/2022
7.56 am ET
BRIANNA KEILAR: Because for so much time African-American women have been discounted simply because they are black women. And yet I think righting that wrong, look, whether or not these senators agree with her on—on– her merits or where she is in her judicial views, it just seems like a weird, kind of, hill to stake a claim on.
ABBY PHILLIP: Two interesting things about that. One, the Republican Party right now is running against what they call identity politics, but they’re doing it by running on white identity politics. Telling white Americans that they are being discriminated against by efforts to level the playing field for non-white people. That’s a core — that’s core to the Republican Party’s platform right now. But interestingly, we’ve also seen Republicans using this idea of a black woman being put on the Supreme Court to drive a wedge between Hispanic voters and the Democratic Party. They are advertising to Latinos saying to them, “it’s racist against you that Biden would say he would put a black woman on the Court.” Again, the Republican Party is running against identity politics by running toward identity politics, and so you have to really be clear-eyed about what’s happening here.
This is not about eliminating race as an idea, it’s about speaking to race, but for certain people. And in a lot of ways it’s about isolating black voters and saying–saying–to white voters and even Latino voters, Democrats are giving unfair advantages to black voters. That’s what this is all about, in some quarters, but again Brianna, the extremes of the Republican Party are doing this, but you have a lot of people who are closer to the middle saying this is nonsensical. Ronald Reagan did the same thing. Heck, Donald Trump did the same thing when he said he would put a woman on the court before he picked her.
KEILAR: Yeah, it–it’s a justification of closing the door on including all voices at the table. It’s—it’s just perplexing to me.
PHILLIP: And—and—and– it makes no sense and I think a lot of people see through it frankly.
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