Three Republican senators have announced that they plan to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, due to the fact that she is exceptionally qualified for the job. That three Republicans will vote to confirm is good for Jackson (and the rest of us) but it’s frankly embarrassing that 47 GOP senators are refusing to do the right, reasonable thing.
Not to be outdone in the embarrassment department, over in the lower chamber, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene weighed in on the senators’ announcements, calling them “pro-pedophile.”
“Murkowski, Collins, and Romney are pro-pedophile,” she tweeted earlier this week. “They just voted for #KBJ.”
First of all, no they didn’t. Because the vote hasn’t happened yet. (It’s happening today. The only lawmakers who had actually cast a vote when Greene tweeted were those on the Judiciary Committee, which does include any of these three Republicans.) This might seem like a quibble but it sure would be nice to know that members of Congress know the difference between a press release or an interview and an actual vote. Obviously, that isn’t Greene.
The accusations of being “pro-pedophile” are rooted in the (extremely misleading) claim that Jackson has a record of light sentencing for child porn offenders. However, the GOP is also trying to expand these accusations to equate support of LGBTQIA rights (as with opposition to “Don’t Say Gay” bills and laws) with “grooming” and “pedophilia.” It’s a disturbing narrative rooted in homophobia and transphobia so naturally, Greene is leaning in hard.
A very tame joke
That brings us to Jimmy Kimmel, who brought up Greene’s tweet in his late-night show monologue Tuesday night.
“This woman—Klan mom—is especially upset with the three Republican senators who said they’ll vote yes on Ketanji Brown Jackson, who’s nominated for the Supreme Court. She tweeted, ‘Murkowski, Collins, and Romney are pro-pedophile. They just voted for KBJ.’ Wow, where is Will Smith when you really need him, huh?”
That is, by all accounts, a pretty tame joke. But that didn’t stop MTG from calling it a “threat of violence” and claiming she reported it to the Capitol police.
Does she actually think that Kimmel’s query about WIll Smith’s location was earnest? Like he was actually looking for Will Smith so that he could book him a flight to Washington DC to enact physical violence on Greene, in an already tired reference to him slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars a week and a half ago? No, of course she doesn’t, she’s just being dramatic.
Good luck with that.
Greene’s claim that she called on the Capitol police to protect her from Kimmel’s joke is teeming with hypocrisy on so many levels. Greene has frequently railed against attacks on free speech, even tweeting just last month that “Censorship and the Ministry of Truth are the real destroyers of Democracy.” (The Ministry of Truth is, of course, not a real thing but a government branch from George Orwell’s 1984.)
Greene should know the difference between a late-night joke and actual calls for violence, like that time she said Nancy Pelosi should be executed for treason.
And good luck getting the Capitol police to take you seriously, Marjorie, after recently referring to them as Nancy Pelosi’s “gazpacho police.” (Yes, like the soup.) Also, she was one of 21 Republicans who voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who defended the Capitol during the January 6 attack but sure, demand they help you go after the mean joke man on the other side of the country.
For his part, Kimmel responded simply:
(image: Comedy Central)
