Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) Deputy Press Secretary rebuked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her Tuesday interview attacking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, calling her assessment of the justice “offensive, disgusting, and false.”
Bryan Griffin criticized the failed presidential candidate in a tweet, saying that his own experience with Thomas flew directly in the face of what Clinton had said earlier to “CBS Mornings” host Gayle King. During her interview, responding to questions about Thomas’ opinion regarding the recently-overturned abortion cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Clinton claimed that Thomas had been “a person of grievance for as long as I have known him, resentment, grievance, anger.”
"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
“Offensive, disgusting, and false commentary from @HillaryClinton about Clarence Thomas. I’d like to directly rebut this,” Griffin tweeted. “After I passed the bar, I stopped CT in a lobby in D.C. and asked him if he would do me the honor of swearing me in as a lawyer (2015).”
Offensive, disgusting, and false commentary from @HillaryClinton about Clarence Thomas.
I'd like to directly rebut this.
After I passed the bar, I stopped CT in a lobby in D.C. and asked him if he would do me the honor of swearing me in as a lawyer (2015). https://t.co/xcTnJ8u99Y
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) June 28, 2022
“He invited me to his office at the SC the next day, (after work) and spent hours with me in conversation, earnestly affording me his time and encouraging me. A friend and a law professor accompanied me,” Griffin continued, adding a photo of the moment Thomas obliged, swearing him in as an attorney.
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) June 28, 2022
But the story did not end there. Griffin went on to say that in addition to asking about his life, Justice Thomas shared a bit of his own with the young lawyer.
“He showed us pictures from his latest vacation with his wife and fondly spoke of the love he has for her. We discussed America, and from everything he said it was clear he loves this country and the people in it,” Griffin continued, adding, “In my anecdote, he did not know me or owe me anything. But he afforded me incredible kindness. I am certain he extends the same to others. He is committed to the Constitution, which is how he came to this and his other decisions.”
“To lie about the man because you do not agree with him is wrong, and people can plainly see it as desperate attack for cheap likes. CT is neither angry nor resentful, and this is abundantly clear to anyone who has interacted with him in person,” he concluded.
Thomas’ own colleague, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, also commented recently on the justice’s demeanor — and her assessment appeared to align more with Griffin’s than with Clinton’s.
“I suspect I have probably disagreed with him more than with any other justice, that we have not joined each other’s opinions more than anybody else,” Sotomayor said of Thomas during a recent speech before the American Constitution Society. “And yet, Justice Thomas is the one justice in the building that literally knows every employee’s name — every one of them. And not only does he know their names, he knows their families’ names and their histories. He’s the first one who will go up to someone when you’re walking with him and say, ‘Is your son okay? How’s your daughter doing in college?’ He’s the first one that when my stepfather died, sent me flowers in Florida. He is a man who cares deeply about the court as an institution, about the people who work there, but about people.”