House

Hakeem Jeffries to Clarence Thomas: ‘Why are you such a hater?’

by Dominick Mastrangelo - 05/12/22 7:20 AM ET

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) this week blasted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for his stance on a number of issues facing the court, including abortion rights.

“Let me ask this question of brother Thomas,” Jeffries said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing this week. “Why are you such a hater? Hate on civil rights. Hate on women’s rights. Hate on reproductive rights. Hate on voting rights. Hate on marital rights. Hate on equal protection under the law. Hate on liberty and justice for all. Hate on free and fair elections. Why are you such a hater?”

Jeffries added the senior conservative justice “thinks he can get away with” his stances on those key issues and “escape public scrutiny.”

Thomas is one of several conservatives on the court who has indicated, according to a leaked draft opinion published earlier this month, that they would rule in favor of a Mississippi state law on abortion that would directly overturn Roe v. Wade, which made abortion a federally protected right.

“We are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don’t like,” Thomas said last week in response to public outcry over the court’s reported stance. “We use stare decisis as a mantra when we don’t want to think.”

Jeffries referenced Thomas’s comments, telling the justice to “start in your own home.”

“Have a conversation with Ginni Thomas. She refused to accept the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. Why?” the congressman said. “Because she didn’t like the outcome. Because the former twice-impeached so-called president of the United States lost legitimately to Joe Biden. How did she respond? Instead, she said the Bidens should face a military tribunal in Guantánamo Bay on trumped-up charges of sedition. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Earlier this year, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot revealed text messages between Ginni Thomas and former President Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows that showed Thomas urging Meadows to fight to keep Trump in power after the 2020 presidential election. Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, also attended the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol riot but said she left before Trump spoke.