MSNBC played a clip of screaming protesters at Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday at the same time that Sen. Kamala Harris…
MSNBC played a clip of screaming protesters at Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday at the same time that Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) took exception to them being called « hysterical. »
« There is so much on the line and so much at stake, so to suggest that people who understand the seriousness of this and are protesting the lack of transparency, the lack of due process, to suggest that they’re hysterical is really to throw out a red herring and not deal with the real issue, » Harris said on « All In with Chris Hayes. »
Simultaneously, MSNBC aired footage of women, including far-left activist and Women’s March co-chair Linda Sarsour, being hauled out of the confirmation room on Tuesday as they screamed for Kavanaugh to be stopped.
MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes also played a clip of Sen. Ben Sasse’s (R., Neb.) opening statement on Tuesday, during which he said people are « going to pretend » Americans do not remember « screaming protesters » at every Supreme Court hearing for decades.
« What’s the hysteria coming from? The hysteria around Supreme Court confirmation hearings is coming from the fact that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the Supreme Court in American life now, » Sasse said.
Harris took issue with Sasse’s use of the term « hysteria » to refer to women protesting.
« I think it’s a mistake to refer to women who are using their voice to protest a flawed process, to refer to them as hysterical, » she said. « There is a whole line of discussion and writings on how the word hysteria has been used to talk about women who own their power. »
Harris was the first lawmaker to interrupt the proceedings on Tuesday in an orchestrated Democratic effort to protest their lack of time to review newly released documents pertaining to Kavanaugh’s service in the George W. Bush administration. She and other Senate Democrats have called for the hearing to be postponed, to no avail.
