cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11773185
GOP Sen. John Kennedy Freaks Out When Reminded He Used To Be A Democrat
“I’ve never been a Marxist!” the Louisiana senator shouted angrily after his attempt to smear one of Biden’s judicial nominees backfired.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Thursday tried to smear one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees by repeatedly calling her a Marxist, an accusation rooted in nothing other than this nominee being a Democrat.
But his effort backfired spectacularly when the Louisiana Republican was reminded that he, too, used to be a Democrat.
“Are you still a Marxist?” Kennedy asked Melissa DuBose, Biden’s nominee for a U.S. district court in Rhode Island. It was his very first question in DuBose’s nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he gave zero context.
“I am not nor have I ever been a Marxist,” replied DuBose, who is now a state district judge.
They went back and forth. Kennedy suggested she was lying under oath about being a secret Marxist, citing an interview she did in 2000 when she was working at a coffee shop and said she was “in my Marxist phase.”
...
And then Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) reminded Kennedy that even if it were true that DuBose had been in a “Marxist phase,” people sometimes take new positions on issues over time. Even him.
“This was many, many, many, many, many years ago,” Whitehouse said of DuBose’s interview. “Perhaps during the time when my colleague Sen. Kennedy was a Democrat, showing that people can change their views, even if it were true that you were in a Marxist phase.”
Whitehouse smiled. Laughs were audible in the room. Kennedy was furious.
“I’ve never been a Marxist!” he shouted. “I’ve never been a Marxist! And I’ve never admitted I was a Marxist and then not turned a document over to this committee!”
I'm just so tired of the disingenuous reporting that comes from politics, no matter what side. Is it too much to ask for some honesty and facts without 14 levels of BS spin attached?
No, the insinuation from his outburst wasn't that Democrats are Marxist. His outburst was because he saw it as false equivalence. The nominee gave an interview in 2000 where she said she was Marxist. The dem senator tried to say the nominee and the GOP senator were the same because people can change their minds. That's when the GOP guy yelled. Not because he was trying to link Democrats and Marxism, but in a "hey! That's not two comparable situations! I never said I was Marxist!" kind of way. The implication being that while he used to be a Democrat, that's not the same as being Marxist. You know, the exact fucking opposite of the narrative that's trying to be spun?
Like, it's stupid that I even have to spell this out. I feel gross for defending any GOP shitbag, but God damn I am tired of reporting like this. I feel like anyone looking into this with even an ounce of context would understand what he was trying to to say, so I don't get why so many people are eating up the fake narrative. Are people so fucking stupid these days that they willfully believe misinformation over facts?
It's not even like the truth makes the GOP guy look good, it just turns it into a nothing story. So people are out here like "I choose to believe the misinformation because the alternative would be boring". Can we please be just a little fucking better?
You can start with a bit of honesty yourself.
The “Marxist phase” comment wasn’t that she was ever really Marxist, rather that she was- at the time- studying them as a polisci major.
It was said with all the seriousness one discussed of a “teenage rebel phase”.