Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) faced backlash online on Monday afternoon over remarks that she made during the confirmation hearings of President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“Though my Republican colleagues and public figures have attempted to undermine your qualifications, through their pejorative use of the term ‘affirmative action’ and they have implied you were solely nominated due to your race and not for other factors,” Hirono claimed. “Apparently, some have even claimed that you need to show your LSAT scores to determine whether you are a top legal mind. This is incredibly offensive and condescending.”
“Let me be clear, your nomination is about, not about filling a quota. It is about time,” she claimed. “It’s about time that we have a highly qualified, highly accomplished black woman on the Supreme Court. It’s about time, our highest court better reflects the country it serves. It’s about time that black women and girls across the country can finally see themselves who look like them sitting on the highest court making decisions that will impact their lives.”
"They have implied you were solely nominated due to your race…Your nomination is not about filling a quota… It is about time that we have a highly qualified, highly accomplished Black woman serving on the Supreme Court," Sen. Hirono says of Judge Jackson in opening remarks. pic.twitter.com/5CsFDDheXY
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 21, 2022
Notable responses included:
- Stephen L. Miller, political commentator: “Nobody is implying she was nominated simply because of her race. Joe Biden actually said it.”
- Dana Loesch, political commentator: “Biden actually said it on the campaign trail. I guess Judge Janice Rogers Brown didn’t count when Democrats threatened to filibuster her nomination.”
- Nate Madden, GOP comms: “… that conclusion implies this actually IS about filling a quota …”
- Helen Raleigh, author: “It was the President Biden who said he would pick someone based on race & gender. And many of us have repeatedly warned that affirmative action brings stigma and taints the achievements of minorities it intended to help.”
- Charles Fain Lehman, reporter: “One of the weird features of contemporary race discourse is that quotas are both absolutely necessary and also totally unthinkable.” He added, “Joe Biden’s stated view is that Stephen Breyer’s seat ought to go to a black woman. That’s a quota (of one black woman on SCOTUS)! You can, of course, be *pro quota*. But it’s weird to favor racial apportionment and *also* say that it’s demeaning to apportion.”
- Matt Murphy, radio host: “Regardless of ANYTHING else, according to Joe Biden, if she were not black and female, she would not be there. Those are his parameters. This was his quota. Not mine.”
- Tamlyn Sheng, political strategist: “It’s ‘not about filling a quota,’ but your race is really important, but it had nothing to do with your nomination, but President Biden said he would only appoint a black woman. So it is about race?”