Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) grilled Dale Ho, President Joe Biden’s judicial nominee to serve on the Southern District of New York, during a Senate hearing on Wednesday over past remarks that he made regarding conservatives.
“I would note, just sitting here, this may be a first in that you have tweeted attacks at multiple members of this committee including Senator Lee, Senator Cotton, Senator Blackburn, Senator Cornyn, and far from being intemperate statements when you were a teenager, most of these tweets occurred last year,” Cruz said. “So in the last 12 months, you have engaged—or the last about 18 months—you have engaged in partisan attacks on multiple members of this committee.”
“But you also wrote in November 2017: ‘In these dark times, I’ve been fortunate to find tremendous sense of purpose in my work as a civil rights lawyer. But as a colleague of mine asked me over lunch recently, Dale, do you do this because you want to help people or because you hate conservatives? What he was getting at is that anger can, in fact, be a tremendous source of power. For me, righteous indignation, can provide a sense of moral clarity, and motivate the long hours needed to get the work done. But it’s only a short term burst. It’s not sustaining in the long run,’” Cruz said. “Mr. Ho, if you wake up and are Judge Ho, and I recognize that New York is a blue state, but imagine there is someone who considers himself or herself a conservative in the state of New York, who, God forbid, finds themselves in a courtroom where you’re wearing a robe. What comfort do you think that litigant would have that you described the hatred of conservatives, the righteous indignation, the anger at conservatives, as a tremendous source of power for you personally? How does that possibly give anyone comfort that you would be a fair and impartial judge?”
Ho claimed that his comment was “a joke that someone else had told” and that what he really meant was that a person had to be motivated from “a place of love for your fellow person” and that’s what he was “trying to convey.”
“Well, that’s not what you said,” Cruz fired back. “What you said is you describe hatred and righteous indignation directed at conservatives, and I would note that that’s a pattern that also continues.”
Ho is the director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.
WATCH:
Sen. Ted Cruz to Dale Ho, Biden judicial nominee, about him writing, “As a colleague of mine asked me over lunch recently, ‘Dale, Do you do this because you want to help people or because you hate conservatives?’”
Ho downplays his writings saying he made the comments in church. pic.twitter.com/mhgL1uXXee
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 1, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Well, let’s take a quote you wrote in November 2017. I found it amusing the exchange a moment ago with one of the Democratic senators about ‘oh, some older intemperate statements.’ I would note, just sitting here, this may be a first in that you have tweeted attacks at multiple members of this committee including Senator Lee, Senator Cotton, Senator Blackburn, Senator Cornyn, and far from being intemperate statements when you were a teenager, most of these tweets occurred last year. So in the last 12 months, you have engaged—or the last about 18 months—you have engaged in partisan attacks on multiple members of this committee. But you also wrote in November 2017: ‘In these dark times, I’ve been fortunate to find tremendous sense of purpose in my work as a civil rights lawyer. But as a colleague of mine asked me over lunch recently, Dale, do you do this because you want to help people or because you hate conservatives? What he was getting at is that anger can in fact, be a tremendous source of power. For me, righteous indignation, can provide a sense of moral clarity, and motivate the long hours needed to get the work done. But it’s only a short term burst. It’s not sustaining in the long run.’ Mr. Ho, if you wake up and are Judge Ho, and I recognize that New York is a blue state, but imagine there is someone who considers himself or herself a conservative in the state of New York, who, God forbid, finds themselves in a courtroom where you’re wearing a robe. What comfort do you think that litigant would have that you described the hatred of conservatives, the righteous indignation, the anger at conservatives, as a tremendous source of power for you personally? How does that possibly give anyone comfort that you would be a fair and impartial judge?
DALE HO, BIDEN NOMINEE: Thank you, Senator Cruz, for giving me an opportunity to address this. As I mentioned to some other members of the committee, this was a comment that I made in church where I was relaying a joke that someone else had told the point of which was that that kind of temporary sugar rush from being angry at someone, while it can feel powerful in a moment, it’s not the kind of thing that is sustaining for a human being, in the long run, that at the end of the day, if you want to do good work in the world, it has to come from a different place, a place of love for your fellow person. And that’s what I was trying to convey to my fellow congregants at my church.
CRUZ: Well, that’s not what you said. What you said is you describe hatred and righteous indignation directed at conservatives, and I would note that that’s a pattern that also continues.