SOUTH BURLINGTON — Vermont’s federal delegation did not hold back in their condemnation of Senate Republicans on Friday, blasting what they called “racist” and “misogynistic” conduct toward Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Vermont’s delegates to Washington also expressed concern about reports that Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pushed former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to overturn the 2020 election while Trump was still in the White House.
“It’s truly appalling behavior by her,” Welch told VTDigger in an interview following an unrelated press conference with the three legislators. “It really raises questions about how much (Justice Thomas) knew about that activity and raises questions about his ability to be a fair, impartial justice.”
Welch said that the messages, which were first reported by The Washington Post and CBS News, should be assessed further by the U.S. House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
“That is the place where they’ve got the momentum,” the Democrat said. “We need to do some more digging.”
Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., joined Welch in describing some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee as racist and sexist for the way they questioned Jackson, the first Black woman to be nominated for the country’s highest court, in hearings this week.
During the hearings, some Republican senators grilled Jackson on contentious topics such as critical race theory and gender identity — lines of questioning that some observers said was badgering the District of Columbia circuit court judge.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked Jackson whether she agreed with a picture book that is taught at a private elementary school where she serves on the board. He said the book declared that “babies are racist.”
Another Republican, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, asked Jackson if she agreed with an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in 2020, that “there are physical differences between men and women that are enduring.”
On Friday, Leahy said Cruz and Blackburn had launched “hypocritical attacks that were racist, misogynist and unprecedented,” banging on the podium as he spoke. Leahy vented to reporters Wednesday about behavior by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
“Yet you will not hear a single word that suggests that Clarence Thomas did anything wrong,” Leahy said.
Thomas was one of 21 Supreme Court nominees Leahy has voted on during his 48-year career in the upper chamber. During the justice’s 1991 confirmation vote, Leahy joined all but 10 Democrats to oppose Thomas’s installation to the bench.
Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, said the questions posed to Jackson by some “right-wing Republicans” were “absolutely disgraceful.”
“It sends a very, very bad message throughout this country,” Sanders said. “But I am confident that we will have the support, I think, of virtually all Democrats, and I think we’ll have some Republicans, and I think that she will soon become the next justice of the United States Supreme Court.”
The three legislators also offered support for Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin began an invasion last month.
Sanders said he backed Biden’s decision not to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which the two-time presidential candidate said would unwisely escalate tensions between Russia and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“Does anybody in their right mind want to see World War III? Does anybody in their right mind want to see a nuclear war? We don’t,” Sanders said.
The remarks came during a press conference at Burlington International Airport announcing millions in earmarks — funds directed by Congress to specific projects — that Leahy, Sanders and Welch included in the $1.5 trillion omnibus federal appropriations package that passed earlier this month.
Welch — who is running for the Senate seat Leahy plans to vacate after this year — defended the return of earmarks, a practice which for years had been renounced by both parties.
“In Congress, each of us is elected by the people, and we’re subject to their vote,” Welch said. “Congressionally directed spending is a judgment by members of Congress who are accountable to our voters about how to spend taxpayer dollars.”
Welch said the process of allocating earmarks is transparent and that the federal grants cannot add up to more than 1% of the government’s overall spending.
Sanders also praised the return of earmarks, saying they help ensure that congressional leaders are listening to their constituents.
Because of earmarks, “I and my staff — and Sen. Leahy and Congressman Welch and their staff — can go out around the state, talk to people from one end of Vermont to the other and get a sense of what their needs are, and do our best to fund those needs,” Sanders said.
Among the projects funded by the bill is $2 million worth of upgrades to the Burlington airport as well as $10 million for a new aviation technician school run through Burlington Technical Center, according to a press release from Leahy’s office.
The package also funnels money into higher education, with the Vermont State Colleges System receiving $3.7 million as it seeks to unify its three residential campuses, the release said. The University of Vermont was allotted more than $12 million for research projects and the establishment of a doctorate in occupational therapy.
The legislation also sent $9 million to the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies so it can loan it out to new companies across the state, according to the release. In addition, Vergennes is slated to get $3 million for its wastewater treatment facility, and Burlington $1 million to renovate its Church Street Marketplace.
At the conference, Leahy made note of Vermont’s haul of federal money, boasting that it was disproportionately large for the state’s size.
“We may be the second-smallest state in the country,” Leahy said, “but we might just have the biggest clout.”
