U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, is under fire after attacking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York.
“In Chuck Schumer’s America — only atheists can be Supreme Court Justices,” Blackburn said on Twitter Friday morning.
It was unclear what led to her tweet. But many were quick to defend Senator Schumer, noting he is Jewish, and calling her remarks anti-Semitic.
Blackburn is a far right wing hard core conservative who steadfastly supports President Donald Trump.
In 2018 her state’s top newspaper reported that Blackburn “has met with leaders of a far-right Austrian political party with Nazi roots.” The Tennessean also reported that Blackburn “has previously faced criticism for her association with a former leader of a neo-Confederate hate group.”
The paper also pointed to a tweet from white supremacist Congressman Steve King, showing the Iowa Republican with Blackburn and “members of Austria’s Freedom Party, a far-right political party founded by one-time Nazi officers ‘whose leaders have continued to engage in anti-Semitism and Holocaust trivialization in recent years,’ according to the Anti-Defamation League.”
Senator Blackburn’s Friday tweet was met with disgust and derision, accusations of anti-Semitism, and mockery for suggesting atheism was somehow a disqualifying factor for a Supreme Court nominee.
There is zero fact in Blackburn’s attack. Senator Schumer has strongly supported Supreme Court nominees of several faiths. And no Supreme Court nominee has ever been known to be an atheist.
Noted journalist and political commentator David Frum, who also sits on the board of directors of the Republican Jewish Coalition, accused Blackburn of dog-whistling.
One popular Twitter personality slammed Blackburn, noting that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy snubbed Justice Ginsburg earlier that morning.
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