John Cornyn completely humiliates himself during Senate confirmation hearing
At the confirmation hearing for Kristen M. Clarke, nominee for Assistant Attorney General, Senator John Cornyn was confused by a satirical op-ed, and actually believed she had written a blatantly racist paper while she was a student at Harvard, totally embarrassing himself.
Thinking he had Clarke with a ‘gotcha’ question, Cornyn first asked Clarke, “…Martin Luther King famously said that he had a dream of the day when his children would be known by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin. Do you agree with that?” Clarke replied, “Absolutely, Senator.”
“Well, maybe there’s a misprint,” Cornyn continued, “dating back to your days in school where you seem to argue that African-Americans were genetically superior to caucasians. Is that correct?” Clarke responded, “No, Senator. I believe you’re referring to an op-ed that I wrote … about the ‘Bell Curve Theory,’ a racist book that equated DNA with genetics and race…. This op-ed opened with a satirical reference to the statement that you just noted. Contemporaneous reporting by the campus paper made very clear that this was not a view that I espoused….”
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
“So this was satire,” Cornyn clarified. “Absolutely, Senator,” Clarke said with a smile.
