It's "disappointing as a conservative" to see President Joe Biden nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a "very liberal" person, to be on the Supreme Court, as she "has a record of being soft on crime," Rep. James Comer said on Newsmax Monday
"Initially I didn't think Republicans would make a big deal out of replacing one liberal on the Supreme Court with another," the Kentucky Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "It's not really going to change the makeup of the court."
Comer's comments came before Jackson's confirmation proceedings were to begin late Monday morning, and he said there are two things that he wants to hear her explain in detail.
"First of all, she represented some Guantanamo detainees, and that's a concern for a lot of Republicans in the House," said Comer. "Secondly is her not willing to commit to not packing the Supreme Court. This is a big issue. We don't need to pack the Supreme Court. We need to keep the Supreme Court the way it is."
There is also a major question about Jackson's record as a judge who is soft on crime, said Comer, at a time when crime across America is on the rise.
"Some wonder if this is a result of lenient sentencing or if this is a result of criminal justice reform," said Comer. "Is this the result of liberal Democrats in big cities, taking advantage of COVID and letting more criminals out than they should have?"
The congressman also on Monday discussed the escalating situation in Ukraine, after reports that the Russian military has used hypersonic missiles for the first time against targets there.
"Unfortunately, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's already crossed the red line," said Comer. "Everyone talks about this is a red line. This is the line he can't cross. Putin's already crossed that line, so I don't think from this point on anything would surprise most Republican members of Congress as far as what Putin's going to do what he can do. We knew that he had weapons of mass destruction. We knew that he was going to hit below the belt. We knew that nothing that he claimed with respect to Ukraine would hold true."
However, Biden has been "very slow and hesitant to get weapons to Ukraine.
"Unlike the Afghanis, the Ukrainians actually want to fight back," said Comer. "I think what happened in Afghanistan has given Biden and his Pentagon a lot of reservations about sending weapons over there because they didn't want to see another story where our weapons end up in our in the hands of our enemies."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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