Moments after President Biden’s left-wing Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson concluded her opening statement during Monday afternoon’s Senate confirmation hearing, the broadcast networks went to work hailing her performance and preemptively declaring her immune from any Republican criticism. The swooning coverage marveled over Jackson and advised the GOP “this is not the hill maybe they want to die on.”
Nightly News anchor Lester Holt questioned Pete Williams, justice correspondent after Yamiche Alcindor’s gushing and Eugene Robinson’s left-wing columnist in Washington during NBC News Special coverage “…this nomination does not change…the center of gravity, ideological gravity in the Supreme Court. What does that mean for Republicans? Will they hold back and realize this is not the hill maybe they want to die on?”
Williams agreed with this assessment. “Oh, I suspect a little of that, Lester. The other thing is they’re going to have a hard time coming up with something new.” The reporter referenced her previous confirmation hearings for the federal judiciary and dismissed any issues Republicans might raise: “So she’s been through a lot of these questions before….what isn’t changed is her record. So if they’re going to ask her about the record, she’s been – this is sort of asked answered before.”
“Do you see any hurdles after what you heard today?,” Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell wondered to chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford during CBS News special coverage. Crawford replied by announcing that there were “no red flags” for Jackson despite the nominee not having been asked a single question yet:
No, not now, and I don’t see any red flags and I see nothing that’s gonna come up based on people I’ve talked to or interviews that I’ve had about her record. The Republicans have begun revealing three areas they will focus on tomorrow. They’re gonna try to discern her judicial philosophy, to show that unlike the picture that we just saw that they think she will be some kind of judicial extremist. I think that’s going to be pretty hard for them to do.
Special coverage by ABC News World News TonightAnchor David Muir called Terry Moran, a senior national correspondent for analysis. Moran, like his CBS and NBC counterparts, immediately attempted to shield Jackson from all scrutiny regarding her records:
Also, I was struck by her enthusiastic voicing American patriotism in the opening of her remarks.She will continue to serve, as she did when President Biden appointed her. This is a person who knows, firsthand obviously, the greatest crisis in our country’s history, the crisis of racism, has lived through it, and still loves the country openly. This is why I believe she was chosen by President Biden, and it’s gonna be very difficult for the Republicans really to do a lot of damage to a candidate like this, to a nominee like this….And this moment, where she stepped forward to say, “Here I am, an American, a black woman, and I’m ready for this job.” This was an outstanding performance.
As far as the leftist media are concerned, there’s no point in even having Senate hearings because they have already decided that it’s not worth listening to any criticism of Jackson.
No commercial breaks were featured in live network coverage.
The March 21 NBC News Special Report transcript is available here:
3.38 PM ET
(…)
LESTER HOLT – Eugene Robinson, NBC News’ political analyst is now with me. Eugene, what are your thoughts on her opening remarks?
EUGENE ROBINSON: Well, you know, today is the day – it’s not back and forth, it was opening statements, and so for me it’s a day to take a sort of wider lens, to see a black woman sitting in that chair in that hearing was emotional for me. I thought about – I thought of my mother, I thought of my mother-in-law. My mother, who was college librarian. My mother in law worked as a researcher for the National Institutes of Health. They’re both successful in life, but I wonder what more they could have achieved if it were not for the dual glass ceiling that they faced because of when they lived.
(…)
3:40 PM ET
HOLT: Yamiche Alcindor is the one who has this sense of history Eugene speaks about. How will it carry these proceedings forward? Oder will it be possible to get back to the way we are used to seeing these things working?
YAMICHE ALCONOR: I believe it will. Two hundred and thirty-three years it took to get to this moment, and I was struck by the fact that she talked about her parents naming her “Ketanji.” And in talking to her friends, including Lisa Fairfax who introduced her, I talked to them over the weekend, and they said Ketanji Brown Jackson would make sure people that people could say her name, even when she was a Freshman in college, because she wanted people to understand the sort of significance of the fact that her parents decided to name her this African name.
(…)
3.43 PM ET
HOLT – I would like to talk to Pete Williams (NBC News justice correspondent) now. Pete, as you and others have noted, this nomination does not change – potentially change the center of gravity, ideological gravity in the Supreme Court. What does that mean for Republicans? They will not be able to stop and see that this is not the hill on which they would like to go to their graves.
PETE WILLIAMS (OH, that’s a bit of it, Lester. The other thing is they’re going to have a hard time coming up with something new. She just had to go through it eight months ago, when she was appointed for the court on appeals. So she’s been through a lot of these questions before about decisions she made during her eight years as a judge, a trial judge here in Washington. Now granted, Supreme Court confirmation hearings are always different, but what isn’t changed is her record. So if they’re going to ask her about the record, she’s been – this is sort of asked answered before.
For example, it’s expected they’ll ask her about her time as a public defender, during which she did represent a Guantanamo Bay detainee. It was very interesting to me, Lester. She made it a point to introduce her brother, who was a soldier in the Army, because she was being asked about her time as a public defense attorney. However, her views were not always consistent with hers, and she also mentioned her brother’s service in the Army.
(…)
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