Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was questioning Biden‘s nominee to lead the DOJ Civil Rights Division on an op-ed that she wrote in college, not knowing that it was satire.
Video:
John Cornyn grills assistant attorney general nominee Kristen Clarke about an article she wrote for her college paper, seemingly oblivious to the fact it was satire pic.twitter.com/qMG3LNg2AO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2021
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Cornyn said, “Maybe there’s a misprint, and maybe you can clear it up for me dating back to your days in school when you seem to argue that African-Americans are genetically superior to Caucasians, is that correct?”
Clarke answered, “No, Senator. I believe you are referring to an op-ed that I wrote at the age of nineteen about The Bell Curve Theory, a racist book that equated DNA with genetics and race. As a black student at Harvard at this time, we took grave offense to this book. It was co-authored by a Harvard professor. We did a number of events to speak out against the book, and this op-ed opened with a satirical reference to the statement that you just noted.”
Republicans can’t find any real reasons to oppose Biden’s nominees, so they are using their committee platforms to spread their racist culture war nonsense, but this time, Sen. Cornyn had it all wrong. Cornyn either didn’t know or didn’t care that that Clarke’s article was satire, but her answer was a humiliation for the Senator who was too busy trying to score cheap race-based political points to care about the facts.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
