This story originally asserted that Fox News’ Peter Doocy was the reporter who asked the question. It is unclear if it was Doocy or another reporter who asked the question.
It has been a while since we checked in with White House press secretary Jen Psaki and her daily activity of slam dunking bad questions from reporters. Part of the reason is that her frequent habit of knocking around reporters like Fox News’ Peter Doocy is sort of like shooting fish in a barrel—and by shooting fish in a barrel I mean like shooting one fish in a barrel shaped like said fish, from no distance away, with a blunderbuss.
Thursday in the White House briefing room was no different. it seems someone needed to write up a story about the unimpeachable nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. The 51-year-old Jackson is on the precipice of making history as the first Black woman to sit on the court. Equally important is that Judge Jackson has criminal defense experience, which the court has not seen since Justice Thurgood Marshall retired back in 1991. As a result of her color, her gender, her non-big-business-only experience, and the fact that she was nominated by a Democratic president, the Republican Party has sent out its most craven goons to attack her in their lowest-common-denominator ways.
Jen Psaki isn’t having it.
A few weeks ago, anticipating President Biden’s choice, Sen. Ted Cruz of Dirtbagtopia (Population: 1), went on his Verdict with Ted Cruz show to argue that nominating a Black woman would be reverse racism. As one might imagine, that didn’t go well for him. At today’s White House press conference, an unnamed reporter decided his best bet was to try and work into the public sphere the stench of QAnon conspiracy theory and racism that failed insurrectionist Sen. Josh Hawley promoted on social media: the idea that Judge Jackson was soft on crime and easy on pedophiles and sex offenders.
A face that reporters asking Peter Doocy-like questions must see a lot.
Just having to reiterate most anything that Hawley says means I will be boiling my keyboard to sterilize it later and probably have a priest come over to say some prayers while I burn sage. In a long drawn-out way, the unseen reporter asked whether or not Psaki and the White House are worried that other Republicans would look to Josh Hawley and be persuaded by his dulcet screams of hatred and ignorance. The phrase “explosiveness of this line of attack” appeared in the question. What rhymes with barf?
Psaki responded with a rather short and sweet statement of fact, and in doing so grabbed Josh Hawley and slam dunked him on top of said reporter. What a twist!
JEN PSAKI: Well, 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.
Ouuuccchhh.
Check out Daily Kos’ The Brief here. You can also listen to an episode we did with Eli Mystal, Justice Correspondent for The Nation back in September.
