During a private Senate luncheon for Republicans, Sen. John Kennedy (R–LA) expressed his inner racist when discussing Biden's upcoming SCOTUS nomination – which the president has said will be a Black woman.
According to Politico, he said upon leaving the shindig:
"No. 1. I want a nominee who knows a law book from a J. Crew catalog."
"No. 2. I want a nominee who's not going to try to rewrite the Constitution every other Thursday to try to advance a 'woke agenda.'"
And his racist, unspoken No. 3: My wishes can't be granted if a Black woman is nominated.
When asked about his statements and how they compare to the sentiment of some Republican leaders who think focusing on the SCOTUS nomination rather than the pocketbook is "counterproductive to their messaging," according to Politico, he said, "I'm going to talk about what I want to talk about, and if they don't like that, they can call somebody who cares."
From MarketWatch:
His remarks drew backlash on Twitter TWTR, -4.22% after the news broke on Wednesday, leading J. Crew to trend in the afternoon as readers discussed what they thought Kennedy meant by those words.
Many saw racial undertones in the catalog comment, noting that former first lady Michelle Obama, a Black woman, was known for wearing a lot of J. Crew.
Kennedy joined several Republicans questioning Biden's future Supreme Court pick to fill the vacancy that will be left on the bench when Justice Stephen Breyer retires after this session. And some of these Republicans have pointedly taken issue with Biden's promise to name a Black woman to the country's highest court.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Biden's vow to name a Black woman "offensive" because because Biden is saying that white men and women have the "wrong skin pigment and wrong Y chromosome," which has also drawn some backlash. Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker said he views the process as "affirmative action."
