There are a lot of politicians in the United States who would defend Nazis today. Let’s not forget that Nazism is a form of fascism, and former President Donald Trump certainly utilized fascist political tactics. So, things aren’t looking too good for Republicans. But Republicans aren’t too well known for their self-awareness lately — which explains why this week, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton claimed Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson would’ve defended Nazis at Nuremberg.
Republicans have latched onto Jackson’s history as a public defender in their attempt to discredit her. Notably, they’ve often invoked her work with detainees in Guantanamo Bay — you know, the infamous torture site that should be abolished.
On Tuesday, Cotton, whose name is a little too on the nose for my tastes, decided to latch onto that again, saying, “The last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis. This Judge Jackson might have gone there to defend them.” (Cotton was referring to Robert H. Jackson, who sat on the Supreme Court from 1941 to his death in 1954.)
This is, of course, the same Tom Cotton who said slavery was a “necessary evil” in 2020. Fun fact: In his most famous speech, Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s minister of propaganda, once said, “Enemy nations may raise hypocritical protests against our measures against Jewry and cry crocodile tears, but that will not stop us from doing that which is necessary.”
Cotton’s remarks were swiftly condemned by Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison. While on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Harrison said, “In a Senate where there is Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton is the lowest of the low.” He also said Cotton is a “little maggot-infested man” and, frankly, that’s the only way I’ll be addressing Cotton in my head moving forward.
Cotton stood by his comments when asked about them later, which was a choice. Of course, he’s far from the only Republican to show his ass during Jackson’s confirmation hearing. Last month, the aforementioned Lindsey Graham, who represents South Carolina, had a full-on tantrum and stormed out of the hearing. This was after Graham also brought up Guantanamo Bay and a legal deposition Jackson filed on behalf of detainees, saying she’d accused the government of “acting as war criminals.”
In addition, conservatives have been peddling a wild conspiracy that Jackson is pro-pedophile. Rolling Stone reported that it stems from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) bringing up that Jackson strayed from sentencing guidelines in some child pornography cases. However, that’s not uncommon, and Hawley actually voted to confirm conservative judges who had done so in the past. Also, it’s just really interesting to see conservatives claim to care about pedophilia when Republicans in Tennessee are trying to pass a marriage bill that would eliminate age limits.
