At the confirmation hearing on Wednesday for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, grandstanding Sen. Cory “Spartacus” Booker (D-NJ) broke into tears, stating, “I’m in my joy; I can’t help it.”
“You got here how every black woman in America who’s gotten anywhere has done. Like Ginger Rogers said, ‘I did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels,’” Booker gushed when questioning Jackson. “Nobody’s stealing my joy,” he added tearfully. “I’m in my joy; I can’t help it.”
Later in the proceeding, Booker told Jackson that he becomes “full of emotion” when he looks at her. “You’re a person who is so much more than your race and gender. You’re a Christian. You’re a mom. You’re an intellect. You love books. But for me, I’m sorry, it’s hard for me not to look at you and see my mom, not to see my cousins, one of them, who had to come here and sit behind you. She had to have your back. I see my ancestors and yours.”
He claims she’s so much more than her race and gender, admitting that those two “qualifications” are exactly why she’s up for the nomination. And then he proceeds to obsess over her race.
“You have earned this spot,” he continued. “You are worthy. You are a great American. You’re here. And I know what it’s taken for you to sit in that seat.”
What it has taken for her to be in that seat is to be black and female, which President Biden declared were the qualifications he was looking for in a Supreme Court nominee.