The White House is voicing continued support for its Supreme Court nominee two days into Senate confirmation hearings.
White House principle deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters while flying aboard Air Force One that President Joe Biden watched some portions of Tuesday’s hearings and said that Biden couldn’t be more proud of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s “intellect, her grace, character, and the value of her experience.”
“The country is seeing just how qualified Judge Jackson is, and how she determines cases fairly based solely on the facts and the law, which is what the American people expect in a Supreme Court justice,” Jean-Pierre said before noting endorsements from conservative judges, police organizations, and former state attorneys general.
Jean-Pierre added that Biden was impressed with how Jackson “dismantled bad-faith conspiracy theories” used to “smear” her record as a judge.
Jackson has faced scrutiny from Republicans questioning her sentencing record on child pornography cases, her past praise of Critical Race Theory, and her refusal to define the word “woman” during the proceedings.
Jean-Pierre was then pressed by reporters to address the line of questioning from Republican senators directly—one reporter asking if she thought the questions were “inappropriate, racist, or whatever—however you want to say.”
Jean-Pierre replied by repeating that Biden was very proud of how Jackson had reacted to the questions.
“I just told you his reaction, we’re not going to break it down to specific details,” she added.
Biden, himself, was a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chairing the committee from 1987 to 1995.
Jackson responded to a line of questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) on Tuesday, during which the senator recalled the judge’s past praise of Critical Race Theory and citation of the New York Times’ controversial “1619 Project” during a lecture.
“[Critical Race Theory] is not something I’ve studied, it doesn’t come up in my work. I was mentioning it because it was at least at that time something that was talked about and well known to the students I was speaking to at the law school,” Jackson said.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, Jackson refused to define what a woman is, saying: “No, I can’t. I’m not a biologist.”
She also did not directly answer a question from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on whether the United States should strengthen or weaken punishments for child pornographers.
“Senator, that is not a simple question, and the reason is because what this country does in terms of penalties is in Congress’s province,” Jackson said. “You all decide. You all decide what the penalties are, you decide what the factors are that judges use to sentence. If you determine that any set of penalties is insufficient, then it is in your purview to make that determination.”
Biden nominated Jackson last month to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who is set to retire at the end of this term.
Jackson, who if appointed will be the first black woman to sit on the high court, has found praise from Senate Democrats like Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who dismissed Republican allegations “meritless to the point of demagoguery” and described his “joy” at Jackson’s nomination.
“I want to tell you when I look at you, this is why I get emotional,” Booker told Jackson at the hearing Wednesday. “You’re so much more than your race and gender. You’re a Christian, you’re a mom, you’re intellect.”
