Morning Joe: Republicans missed a chance to show they're not the 'anti-Black party' by attacking Judge Jackson
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough expressed shock that Republican senators passed on a chance to show they're not an "anti-Black party" with their treatment of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Political consultant Tom McMahon, who has worked for Democratic candidates and now operates the bipartisan communications firm Purple Strategies, told the "Morning Joe" host that GOP senators had flopped hard by attacking a highly appealing nominee.
"I thought [Jackson] did an exceptional job, and if she is not a person, an American that everybody can and should be proud of, I don't know who is," McMahon said. "You listen to her testimony, you hear her story, you hear that story about what happened in Harvard Yard that day."
"You think this is exactly what America should be celebrating and not tearing down," McMahon added, "and you have these despicable Republicans up there who are basically running a primary campaign for the next presidential election who are race-baiting and doing everything [Rev. Al Sharpton] just described in an effort to pander to their base, but what they're actually doing, I think, is further branding the Republican Party as an anti-minority party and an anti-Black party, which, frankly, I don't understand the, you know, politics is about growing your vote, growing your vote share. I don't see what the strategy is here for Republicans because they're not going to stop her. And they're only going to further cause problems with their brand."
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Jackson will almost certainly be confirmed, even if Democrats are unable to move one Republican to vote for her, and Scarborough agreed that GOP senators had missed an opportunity to appeal to new voters.
"It really is shocking to me that Republicans wouldn't use this opportunity to soften some of their harder edges," Scarborough said.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by a 96-3 vote, which Scarborough said showed just how much the Senate has changed in the past three decades, but he said Republicans had blown it by attacking Jackson so harshly.
"Times have changed, [but] not really if you're a United States senator," he said. "You still have to run statewide, and this week has been such a missed opportunity by so many Republicans."
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