He was being his sister’s keeper!
Senator Cory Booker moves Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to tears with an uplifting speech, The Grio reports.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is at the tail end of her four-day Senate confirmation hearings and while there have been some high moments, like Judge Jackson’s opening speech acknowledging her family, there has also been some trying moments, specifically during the Q&A portion of the hearings.
Jackson has been attacked by Republicans who have questioned everything from her views on “critical race theory,” to her faith. Senator Lindsey Graham even implied that Jackson was the nominee not based on merit, but as the result of “dark money” from radical left wing advocacy groups. As many have pointed out, the attacks are nothing but distractions used to rile up viewers around hot button topics in preparation for next election season and really have no foundational merit.
“[They] have no credible arguments against confirming her…they cannot attack her qualifications, her temperament, her integrity, her brilliance. That’s why we are seeing these red herrings and other distractions play out. And I think the American people who support her confirmation by, I think two-thirds, are not going for these distractions,” said Congressman Mondaire Jones, who attended Judge Jackson’s alma mater of Harvard University and sat in on the hearings.
On Day 3 of the hearings, when it was time for New Jersey Senator Cory Booker to question Judge Jackson during his 20-minute allotted time, he chose instead to affirm and praise her. Reminding her to take the Republicans’ insults and attacks with a grain of salt because she does indeed, deserve to be there.
“I’m not letting anybody in the Senate steal my joy. I just look at you and I start getting full of emotion,” Booker started his speech.
He then proceeded to tell a story about the significance of Jackson’s nomination. Recounting a jog he went on earlier in the day, he shared with Jackson how he was stopped by a Black woman who wanted to know what it meant seeing Jackson getting ready to become the Supreme Court’s first Black woman justice.
“The look in her eyes…she just wanted to touch me I think because I’m sitting so close to you and tell me what it meant to her to watch you sitting where you’re sitting. You did not get there because of some left-wing agenda. You didn’t get here because of some dark money groups. You got here how every Black woman in America who’s gotten anywhere,” Booker continued.
The New Jersey Senator is the only Black senator on the committee’s 22-member panel, and he denounced his colleagues’ treatment of Jackson and shared his own story about an interaction with a Black man in the Capitol building when he made history as the only sitting Black senator in the upper chamber.
“He comes up [and] he can’t get the words out and this man, my elder, starts crying. And I just hugged him, and he just kept telling me, it’s so good to see you here,” recalled Booker.
Photo Courtesy of Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Both Booker and Jackson were moved to tears, Jackson visibly emotional as she reached for tissue and wiped tears from her eyes. Booker continued to affirm her, letting her know that the ancestors would be proud.
“I want to tell you when I look at you this is why I get emotional – and I’m sorry, you’re a person that is so much more than your race and gender…but for me, I’m sorry, it’s hard for me not to look at you and not see my mom…I see my ancestors and yours,” said Booker.
“Nobody’s gonna steal the joy of that woman in the street or the calls that I’m getting or the texts. Nobody’s gonna steal that joy. You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American,” he added.
Sen. Booker continued to admonish his colleagues, letting them know that America will be better, not because of their harsh criticisms and dogmatic ideology, but because of women like Judge Jackson whose appointment to the Supreme Court will get this country one step closer to actually embodying the tenets of what it claims to be.
“You faced insults here that were shocking to me – well, actually not shocking…You’re here, and I know what it’s taken for you to sit in that seat…You are my harbinger of hope. This country is getting better and better and better. When that final vote happens and you are sent onto the highest court in the land, I’m going to rejoice…and the greatest country in the world, the United States of America will be better because of you,” Booker told Jackson.
“But don’t worry my sister, God has got you. And how do I know that? Because you are here and I know what it has taken to sit in that seat.” – Senator @CoryBooker to Judge Jackson today.
advertisementThank you Senator for saying what needed to be said. pic.twitter.com/l7CnRiP0XA
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) March 23, 2022
Senator Booker has been praised on social media for saying what we’ve all been thinking. We echo those praises.
Photo Courtesy of Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Susan Walsh/Associated Press