Amidst the historic importance of her candidacy as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is placing public and private pressure on his fellow republicans in the Senate to block President Biden’s candidate to the Supreme Court.
McConnell has thrown his weight behind Biden’s candidate, claiming that the decision isn’t about “race or gender,” but about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s record, which he claims is too lenient on crime and signals she’ll likely become an activist judge on the bench, The Hill reported.
As per senators who witnessed the discussion, McConnell made an emotional pitch for his colleagues to oppose Biden’s nomination during a recent Senate GOP lunch.
According to one Republican senator, McConnell was adamant about Jackson’s candidacy.
McConnell went into great detail regarding Jackson’s record, including her choice to give one offender, Wesley Hawkins, a three-month term instead of the two-year penalty requested by federal prosecutors.
Republican strategists and veteran watchers of Mitch McConnell’s style of leadership suggest he sees a united Conservative vote against Jackson as excellent politics moving into the midterm election, as well as beneficial for his personal status within the Senate GOP conference, which McConnell wants to lead again in 2023 and 2024.
According to Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based GOP strategist who has counseled McConnell’s previous campaigns, Biden’s candidacy of Jackson fits into the broader [narrative that] the Democrats are easy when it comes to crime and criminals, while Republicans are tough.
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