At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questioned Karla M. Campbell, nominee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, about her past work.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm trying to understand your answers to this committee.
00:02Let's start with the worker's dignity question,
00:05because your truthfulness under oath is surely,
00:09I notice my friends across the way now
00:10are utterly uninterested, utterly uninterested
00:14in any organization you've been a part of.
00:15They're suddenly utterly uninterested
00:17in things you wrote in the past.
00:18They're utterly uninterested in who you give money to.
00:21That wasn't the case just a few years ago,
00:23but be that as it may,
00:25surely they're interested in your truthfulness.
00:27I have now counted, just as I've sat here today,
00:30four separate answers by you,
00:33all of them conflicting as to what exactly
00:36was your relationship with worker's dignity.
00:38So let's just get this nailed down.
00:39First of all, did you disclose your relationship
00:42with worker's dignity to this committee?
00:47Don't look at the chairman, look at me.
00:49I'm not sure that I included that.
00:53I don't remember, Senator.
00:55Oh, I think you do.
00:56The answer is no, you did not disclose it to this committee.
01:00Then you told Senator Grassley,
01:02I've never represented that group.
01:05Then you told Senator Lee, next,
01:09that you had indeed advised them
01:12and that you'd advise them
01:13as a member of a legal advisory board.
01:16You said 10 years ago, right?
01:20Then you told Senator Cruz that in fact,
01:24you had advised, you told Senator Lee
01:27that you'd advise them briefly.
01:27You told Senator Cruz,
01:28actually you'd advise them for three years.
01:31Then you told Senator Durbin that it wasn't 10 years ago,
01:34it was 15 years ago.
01:36So what is it exactly?
01:39You didn't disclose your association
01:41with this radical group to the committee.
01:44You're currently listed now,
01:46your own bio lists you as a legal advisor
01:49to the worker's dignity group from 2013 to the present,
01:53to the present.
01:55The Tennessee Bar Association cited your work
01:58with this group for your nomination.
02:01So what is the story?
02:04When did you start working for worker's dignity?
02:09Senator, more than a decade ago,
02:15for two or three years,
02:16I served on a legal advisory committee or board.
02:20So you gave them legal advice.
02:22We were helping them set up as a non-profit.
02:24So you represented them.
02:26So you lied to Senator Grassley earlier
02:27when he explicitly asked you,
02:28did you do any legal work?
02:30And you said, no.
02:31In fact, you served on a legal advisory board.
02:34That's your testimony now, correct?
02:38Senator, I served on this board.
02:40On a legal advisory board, correct?
02:42Correct.
02:43Okay, so you lied to Senator Grassley here under oath.
02:48What else have you lied about?
02:51Workers' dignity has condemned Israel's ethnic cleansing
02:57of Palestine.
02:58They have said that Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing.
03:01Do you agree with that?
03:03No, Senator.
03:04How can I believe you?
03:06You just lied under oath a moment ago to Senator Grassley.
03:09You've lied to us up and down on this committee.
03:13I mean, this is a serious problem, Ms. Campbell.
03:15I have to say, I've never seen a witness, never,
03:17in five years in this committee,
03:18sit here and lie to us and change the story
03:21person to person.
03:23Why are you doing it?
03:24What is it?
03:25Why are you afraid to tell the truth
03:27about workers' dignity?
03:28Why have you lied to this committee?
03:29Why didn't you disclose it?
03:31Why did you lie to Senator Grassley?
03:32Why have you changed your story every time you're asked?
03:37Senator, I have not lied to you today.
03:39I've tried to represent my participation with this group.
03:43What you've done is you've misrepresented
03:44your participation with this group.
03:45You apologized to Senator Cruz for any confusion.
03:49You've created the confusion, deliberately, deliberately.
03:54Let's talk about something else
03:55that you've created confusion for.
03:56The biggest political donation that you've ever made
03:58is to Odessa Kelly, this radical candidate
04:02who said that members of this committee are Satanists,
04:05who endorsed violence.
04:08Why did you give money to Odessa Kelly?
04:11Over a thousand bucks.
04:12I mean, that's not nothing.
04:13That may be nothing to you.
04:14That's not nothing to most people.
04:16Why did you give money, the most money you've ever given
04:18to this person?
04:20Senator, Ms. Kelly lives in my neighborhood.
04:22She's one of my neighbors.
04:24And you agree with her views?
04:27No, on those views that you've read,
04:28I don't agree with them.
04:29Oh, I haven't read any of them.
04:30I'm just asking you, do you agree with her views?
04:33I mean, you gave her more money than anybody else.
04:35Your governor, your state senator, your attorney general,
04:38you gave her the most.
04:41I do not agree with all of her views, no, Senator.
04:43Well, which ones do you agree with?
04:48Can you name one?
04:51Senator, I know that she is my neighbor,
04:53and I'm a neighborly person.
04:57Oh, I see, you're a neighborly person.
05:00Well, I tell you this.
05:03You have represented to this committee
05:04that you didn't know what Odessa Kelly said,
05:06and the outrageous, frankly, outrageous things
05:09that she said and did.
05:10You said you didn't know anything about workers' dignity.
05:12You lied to us about your association with that group.
05:14You said you didn't know anything about the Tennessee,
05:18what is it, the Tennessee Immigrant Refugee Rights Coalition
05:22who thanks you personally in their introduction.
05:24You said you didn't know anything about that.
05:25I mean, either all of these people are liars,
05:27or you are, Ms. Campbell.
05:28It's one or the other.
05:29It's quite a pattern.
05:31Maybe they all are, but given what you've told us
05:33under oath today, I think the answer is you are,
05:36and for that reason, you are utterly unqualified
05:38to sit on the federal bench.
05:40Senators, time has expired.
05:43Thank you, Ms. Campbell, and thank you, Judge Lopez,
05:46you are free.