White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki blasted attacks from U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) Thursday afternoon, calling into question his credibility over the fist-pumping insurrectionist poster boy’s unfair and inaccurate attacks on President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
After a reporter noted that Senator Hawley has “consistently voted against the President’s nominees,” Psaki was asked if the White House is worried the “explosiveness” of Hawley’s “line of attack” against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will “affect your ability to win over other Republican votes.”
Senator Hawley, whose iconic fist pump in the air became one of the most recognizable images of the January 6 insurrection and attack on American democracy itself, still sits on the Judiciary Committee and has been waging war against Judge Jackson.
Hawley’s “line of attack” is his claim, debunked by legal experts including judges, that her rulings in child pornography cases were not harsh enough. On Twitter Thursday he falsely claimed, “her record endangers children.”
“For more than a decade,” however, as Politico reports, “criminal justice reform advocates and many federal judges have complained publicly that — in part due to advances in technology — those guidelines are too harsh in cases involving only receipt or sharing of child pornography materials.”
Psaki came to the Press Briefing Room Thursday with receipts, telling the reporter who asked about Hawley’s attack, “I’m not sure that someone who refused to tell people whether or not he would vote for Roy Moore is an effective and credible messenger on this.”
Roy Moore is Judge Roy Moore, the twice-fired Alabama far right wing Supreme Court chief justice who was credibly accused by numerous women of sexual assault or sexual or social misconduct, including when some of them were underage.