Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashed out at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during a CBS interview that aired Tuesday, noting that they had attended law school together and calling him “a person of grievance.”
Clinton spoke with “CBS Mornings” host Gayle King in her first sit-down interview since the Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — which resulted in a 5-4 decision to overturn landmark abortion rulings in both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
King asked Clinton specifically about some of the cases raised by Thomas in his opinion — and her own warnings that the court’s move to overturn Roe opened the door for the possible rollback of other civil rights in the future.
WATCH:
"Women are going to die, Gayle, women will die." Hillary Clinton lashes out at Justice Clarence Thomas, calling him "a person of grievance for as long as I have known him, resentment, grievance, anger." pic.twitter.com/fFY5kf3p9o
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) June 28, 2022
“Justice Thomas just sort of floated that out there about contraceptive rights, and contraception, and about same-sex marriages, but other justices have pushed back to say no, he is really sort of on his own with that. Do you believe that?” King asked.
“Well, he may be on his own, but he is signaling as he often did, people, I went to law school with him,” Clinton continued. “He’s been a person of grievance for as long as I have known him, resentment, grievance, anger, and he has signaled in the past to lower courts, to state legislatures, find cases, pass laws, get them up. I may not win the first, the second, or the third time, but we’re going to keep at it.”
“You’re saying people pay attention to it,” King pressed.
“The people he is speaking to, which is the right-wing very conservative judges and justices and state legislatures, and the thing that is, well, there are so many things about it that are deeply distressing, but women are going to die, Gayle. Women will die,” Clinton insisted.
“We reached out to Justice Thomas for a comment, but we have not heard back from him,” King noted.
Later in the interview, King pressed Clinton several times on whether she would consider getting back into the political ring — particularly with an eye toward the 2024 presidential election.
“I can’t imagine it. I really can’t,” Clinton insisted.
“That’s not a no,” King replied.
“What I can imagine is staying as active and outspoken as I can because I think our country is really on the precipice, Gayle. I think that we are looking at — not only the erosion of these rights, the throwing the door open to unfettered, unregulated gun access — but we’re also looking at dismantling the federal government, how it protects our air and our water and everything else that goes along with it,” Clinton pushed back, saying that she truly believed that “democracy is at stake.”