"Performative" KBJ attacks may haunt GOP

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) (C) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) (R) watch as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) (L) questions U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, March 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, would become the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court if confirmed. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

With Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — both key swing votes — having said they will vote for her, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appears likely to be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But most GOP senators are likely to vote against her, and far-right extremists like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have been angrily railing against President Joe Biden's nominee — which, journalist Eleanor Clift argues in an op-ed published by the Daily Beast on April 4, may come back to haunt them in the future.

"Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was already held in favorable regard by the American public before the Supreme Court nominee sat for Senate confirmation hearings," Clift explains. "But her popularity grew even more after the hearings, thanks to a tag team of Republicans who sought to portray her as soft on child pornography criminals, uncertain about the definition of a woman, and a fan of critical race theory."