Sen. John Kennedy Brutally Confronts Witness Over Her Past Tweets

3 days ago

At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) confronted a witness over her past tweets.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize for having to miss the testimony of some of you, and

00:07I appreciate you coming today. Professor Franks, let me ask you, I listened to your and Ms.

00:18Hemingway's testimony and Professor Turley's, so I got part of it. As I understand it, your

00:25position, Professor Franks, is that, I think you used the word myth, it is a myth that

00:34the Biden administration used government to compel speech, private speech, but the Trump

00:43administration is doing that. Is that a fair characterization?

00:47Yes, that's correct.

00:49Do you think, perhaps, you're allowing your personal political beliefs to affect your

00:58objectivity here?

00:59No, I do not. What is guiding my answers here is that I'm looking to see what the Supreme

01:05Court has said. You notice that in the testimony about the censorship of the industrial complex.

01:09I got that part.

01:10I just want to clarify.

01:11No, but I've only got five minutes. Your answer is no, as I appreciate it. Let me ask you

01:18a couple of questions. You wrote a law review article in December of 2023 for the New York

01:28University Law Review. It was about the two cases, Bruin, the Supreme Court case, and

01:35Dobbs. Remember that article?

01:37Yes, I do.

01:40In this article, you said, I'm going to quote your words, taken together, these two cases

01:49demonstrate that the Supreme Court has embraced the use of the Constitution as a tool of racial

01:56patriarchy, end quote. Did you say that?

02:01Yes.

02:02And then you went on to say, quote, when the Supreme Court declares that there is a constitutional

02:08right to armed self-defense in public, it openly embraces and promotes a culture that

02:15privileges white men's ability to terrorize and kill those that they perceive as threats,

02:23close quote. Did I read that correctly?

02:26I believe so. Thank you for reading.

02:28Okay. And did you also say in that article, I'm going to quote again, quote, by simultaneously

02:36expanding white men's right to kill and constricting women's right not to die, this Supreme Court,

02:45referring to the current United States Supreme Court, has turned the Constitution into a

02:50homicide pact as well, close quote. Did you write that?

02:55That sounds like me.

02:56Okay. In November of 2024, you tweet, don't you?

03:08I'm not sure what the current terminology is for it, but yes, I am sometimes on the

03:12social platform that was formerly known as Twitter.

03:14Yeah, you're on a lot, aren't you?

03:17I'm not sure what the relevance of that is.

03:20You're trying to be provocative on there, don't you?

03:24Again, I'm not sure what the relevance of this question is.

03:27Well, let me show you the relevance. On November 7th, 2024, from your tweet, here's one of

03:33your tweets at 2.41 p.m., quote, the majority of Americans hate women. The majority of Americans

03:43hate women more than they love anything, including democracy, close quote. Did I read that correctly?

03:51I am not sure what this has to do with the subject matter of this.

03:54Did you say it?

03:55I do not have those words in front of me. I probably said something along those lines,

03:58but what is the relevance of that to the series?

03:59Yeah, you said it. Here it is. Big as Dallas, right there.

04:03Yes.

04:05But your political beliefs don't impact your feelings about President Biden or President

04:11Trump.

04:12I don't have feelings about either of them. What I have is-

04:14It sounds to me like your favorite feeling is anger. Let me ask you this. You issued

04:20another tweet. This was in May of 2022. You've just been tweeting up a storm. You said, quote,

04:29there's a reason why the conservative-dominated Supreme Court thinks the Constitution does

04:35not contain a right to an abortion, but is convinced that it contains an individual right

04:42to possess firearms. And that reason is white male supremacy, close quote. Did I read that

04:51correctly?

04:52Is there a question in this?

04:53Did I read that correctly? That's my question.

04:55Is there a question that is relevant to this hearing?

04:57Did I read that correctly? Do you really think that the United States Supreme Court, you're

05:02an officer of the court, is guided by white male supremacy?

05:07I believe that the First Amendment prohibits the president and other state officials for

05:12punishing people for-

05:13Did you honestly say that, professor? And you expect us, as a Democratic witness, to

05:19take you seriously? Are you kidding me?

05:22I believe that you should take the First Amendment seriously, sir.

05:24You heard of curb your enthusiasm? Here's my saying, curb my nausea.

05:31I believe that you should take the First Amendment seriously.

05:34Senator Durbin.

05:35Senator Durbin.

Sen. John Kennedy Brutally Confronts Witness Over Her Past Tweets

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