Durbin rails against Republicans ‘only scoring points on the QAnon website’ during Jackson’s hearing

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman rails against Republicans for their questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin railed against Republican senators’ questioning of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during last week’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing as parroting QAnon talking points.

Mr Durbin, who also serves as Senate majority whip, made the remarks on Tuesday when discussing Ms Jackson’s confirmation hearing during Democrats’ weekly press conference. He was quick to add that most Republicans conducted themselves properly.

“The majority of the Republican senators, I thought, handled it properly and did it in a professional way consistent with the aspiration she has to serve on the highest court in the land,” he said. “Three or four Republicans went over the line as far as I’m concerned. What they asked was unfair, unrelenting and beneath the dignity of the United States Senate.”

Republican senators, including firebrand conservatives Josh Hawley of Missouri and and Texas’s Ted Cruz – who had previously gained infamy for their role in objecting to the 2020 presidential election results, which inflamed Trump supporters who raided the Capitol – repeatedly asked Ms Jackson about sentences she doled out for people convicted of possessing child sex abuse images.

Other senators, including Tom Cotton of Arkansas, asked her about the sentencing as well, and Mr Cruz asked her about critical race theory, a term for a niche legal theory that has become a catch-all term for any discussion about the history of racism.

“She showed herself to be rock solid when it came to the grilling that she went through from three or four Republican Senators,” Mr Durbin said. “They may have thought they were scoring points, but they were only scoring points on the QAnon website. The American people watched it and said they went too far.”

Mr Durbin said he hoped Ms Jackson would gain Republican support. Sen John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said that he had not made a decision about whether to support Ms Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation. Sen Ben Sasse of Nebraska said late on Friday that he would not support her confirmation.

“There are those within the Republican Party I know from speaking to them who understand the historic significance of this nomination, and want to make sure that Mr Lincoln’s party, the Grand Old Party, is on board,” he said. “I think that can happen. We’re going to work toward that end.”