WASHINGTON — Senators should avoid the “vicious, personal attacks” Democrats leverage at conservative Supreme Court nominees when conducting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings, a leaked GOP messaging guide obtained by The Daily Wire shows.
“During Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Democrats lost the battle of public opinion when they launched vicious, personal attacks against him – and paid for it electorally,” said a messaging guide issued by Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the only female Republican senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
That guide, distributed to attendees of a conservative women’s strategy session with the Independent Women’s Law Center, which took place Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, references the onslaught of personal and professional attacks leveraged against both Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
During their confirmation hearings, Democrats and activists accused both justices of being radically pro-life and seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade. Kavanaugh was accused of a slew of sexual assaults with little to no supporting evidence, and critics suggested that Barrett adopted her black children for nefarious reasons.
“Judge Jackson deserves a thorough, fair, and transparent confirmation process,” the guide says. “It must be conducted in a manner devoid of needless attacks against her and focused on her past performance, writings, and rulings.”
“It is almost certain that the Democrats and their allies in the media will lob false accusations of racism and sexism when uncomfortable questions are asked,” the guide continued. “The Senate must not be threatened into silence.”
Blackburn calls for Republicans to press Jackson on whether she supports the positions of “radical left-wing groups that are funding a massive PR blitz to get her confirmed — such as packing the Court.”
This is a likely reference to Demand Justice, a left-wing organization prepping to funnel millions into Jackson’s nomination whose board member called the Constitution “kind of trash.”
“We must not fixate on the fact that President Joe Biden first weaponized this process and allowed the Supreme Court confirmation process to become toxic,” the messaging guide continues. “We must remain focused on conducting a thorough and fair process.”
The messaging guide reminds Republicans that senators have a constitutional duty to provide input on the president’s nominees, noting that Supreme Court justices are appointed for life and require “tough questions and close examination.”
Republicans must message that the senate cannot blindly confirm a justice to “serve as a rubber stamp for a radical progressive agenda, the guide says, noting that Jackson must be committed to upholding the Constitution as written, and the American people deserve to know if Jackson supports court packing.
A digital toolkit also provided to attendees of Tuesday’s Supreme Court strategy session encourages tweets and social media posts about the importance of selecting constitutionalist judges who uphold the rule of the law.
“Judges do not create, nor do they enforce,” one sample tweet says. “They interpret the laws.”