WASHINGTON — Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) defended his assertion that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson called then-President George W. Bush and his Pentagon chief “war criminals,” rejecting Democrats’ contention Wednesday that he distorted her petitions on behalf of militants detained at Guantánamo Bay.
“The record is plain as it can be that she accused them of war crimes,” he said. “I don’t understand the difference between calling somebody a war criminal and accusing them of war crimes. Maybe in some some other foreign language that I don’t frankly understand, maybe that wouldn’t make sense, but not in accordance with a common understanding of the English language.”
Democrats, however, insisted that Cornyn had unfairly twisted Jackson’s petitions on behalf of prisoners held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
