Senior GOP senator seems to admit fellow Republicans’ grilling of Ketanji Brown Jackson was all about getting on Fox News

‘The main thing they did this for is so they can get TV time’

GOP Senator Chuck Grassley has appeared to admit Republican attacks on Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing were performative posturing to get on Fox News.

In a viral TikTok, a constituent can be heard telling Mr Grassley that the Republican treatment of Ms Jackson was “appalling”.

“They beat her up really bad and I think it was just appalling,” the constituent said at a town hall in Mr Grassley’s home state Iowa last week.

“That’s all they could come up with, and the main thing they did this for is so they can get TV time.”

Mr Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judicial Committee, replies: “I’m not going to dispute what you said, because I think that you described it accurately.”

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He added that the criticism “doesn’t apply to me”, and that Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin had “complimented” him.

The TikTok had racked up nearly 600,000 views in 24 hours by Friday morning.

Senators Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn, Lindsey Grahama and Ted Cruz were widely criticised for their attacks on Ms Jackson, after grilling her on sentencing lengths in child sex abuse imagery cases, her definition of a woman, and whether babies were racist.

At one point Mr Cruz appeared to be searching for mentions of his name on social media.

In spite of the onslaught, Ms Jackson is expected to become the first African-American woman to be confirmed to the Supreme Court when the Senate votes next week.