After celebrating on Wednesday how liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement was a “political elixir” for the White House, on Thursday, MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd was already hailing President Biden’s yet-to-be-named SCOTUS nominee as someone who will be as “iconic” as “Thurgood Marshall.” He later declared that there were “no red flags” in the still unnamed court pick’s record.
“Maya Wiley, before we get into the specifics of different potential nominees, this moment for women of color in the legal community,” Todd asked of the far-left MSNBC legal analyst early in the 1:00 p.m. ET hour. Wiley gushed: “It is hard to overstate just how important and powerful and inspiring a moment this is.”
Turning to left-wing Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson moments later, Todd swooned over the unknown court pick: “And do you expect this future Supreme Court justice to be iconic in the black community, like Thurgood Marshall was?” Robinson readily agreed:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I do think this justice will be an icon like Thurgood Marshall because she is breaking a glass ceiling. She is breaking a barrier. She will be the first, and that’s how history will remember her. And I think that’s how a lot of people will celebrate her once she is named and confirmed.
Looking at Biden’s likely short list of nominees – again, without knowing who the President would actually pick – Todd preemptively made this announcement about their records: “There’s clearly no red flags here for anybody...” He then asked justice correspondent Pete Williams: “...in your cursory review of the short list here, is – do you see any potential yellow flags?”
Williams replied: “No, I don’t.” Though he did admit that it might be too early to definitively make that conclusion.
Going back to Wiley, Todd repeated the question: “When you’re looking at those vetting things, any yellow flags you see?” Predictably, Wiley saw nothing and sneered that any potential criticism of the future liberal SCOTUS nominee would just be “read meat for Fox News” thrown out by Republicans:
I don’t see any, and I think the reality of the politics of this nomination is not going to be about their actual records....So I would expect that we’re going to see Republicans in particular looking for things they can make soundbites out of to be the red meat for Fox News, but that has nothing to do with any actual yellow flags.
The remarkable clairvoyance from Todd and his liberal guests about an unnamed jurist shows the kind of sycophantic media coverage will be showered upon whoever Biden actually nominates for the Supreme Court.
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Here is a transcript of excerpts from the January 27 coverage:
1:01 PM ET
(...)
CHUCK TODD: As we mentioned on this show yesterday, when the news was first breaking, Breyer’s retirement is supremely good timing for the President and his party, it’s a chance for Democrats to refocus their midterm messaging a bit, re-energize a deflated base, and re-engage on issues ranging from abortion to voting rights and more that might play in their favor in a midterm election cycle.(...)
TODD: Kelly, I want to start with what we just heard from the President there. It – you could just tell, in my conversations with sources at the White House yesterday, I’m sure you felt it, you can, as you said on the air yesterday, you know when a moment changes and it almost feels like it’s changed the President’s posture, if you will.
KELLY O’DONNELL: There is almost a sense of relief coming through the President. He was relaxed, he let more of his personal connection to Justice Breyer come through. And then he sort of gave us the memo, anticipating all the questions our colleagues were going to ask about what is the time line, how will this play out, giving us sort of the playbook of how he plans to handle this process. There will be many more questions to ask and there will be many issues that will pop up along the way where we will want the President to be accountable for the steps on an interim basis. But he gave us the roadmap of how he’s going to handle this.And for a brief moment here at least, events have moved in his direction where he’s got some control. And so much of his presidency has been affected by things that have been big issues not in his control, from COVID to Vladimir Putin to a global economy, and so on. So of the things he can control, he’s got a process he can run in the White House with people who know how this process works.
He’s got a selection of terrific candidates who are esteemed women who have a lot to offer the Court, and he has a chance to make a historic appointment and one that allows him to follow through on a campaign promise that he made at a time when he was, in some ways, if I may use this, you know, throwing a long ball as a candidate who was in some trouble, trying to make an appeal as a candidate, and then time has brought that to fruition where he now has the moment where he can make that a pivot point in American history and place an African American woman jurist on the high court.
(...)
1:08 PM ET
TODD: Maya Wiley, before we get into the specifics of different potential nominees, this moment for women of color in the legal community.
MAYA WILEY: It is hard to overstate just how important and powerful and inspiring a moment this is.
(...)
1:12 PM ET
EUGENE ROBINSON: So, you know, what I think part of the impact, and, you know, you talked about this a bit at the beginning, but it gives the Democratic Party a chance to stop moping and to talk about something that the party agrees on, the party can celebrate, and to engage in a battle, if indeed Republicans want to make it a battle, a battle that Democrats are gonna win. I mean, there’s not a Manchin-Sinema problem with judicial nominees, they’ve approved all of Biden’s judges. So it’s very healthy, I think, for the Democratic Party as it looks toward the midterm. You’ve got to have your base animated. This will help animate the most loyal base the Democratic Party has, which is black women.
TODD: That’s what I was curious about is how much of a difference do you think this could make? And do you expect this future Supreme Court justice to be iconic in the black community, like Thurgood Marshall was?
ROBINSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. I do think this justice will be an icon like Thurgood Marshall because she is breaking a glass ceiling. She is breaking a barrier. She will be the first, and that’s how history will remember her. And I think that’s how a lot of people will celebrate her once she is named and confirmed.
(...)
1:16 PM ET
TODD: Pete Williams, in your cursory review of the short list here, is – do you see any potential yellow flags? There’s clearly no red flags here for anybody as far as – do you see any yellow flags?
PETE WILLIAMS: No, I don’t.
(...)
TODD: When you’re looking at those vetting things, any yellow flags you see?
WILEY: I don’t see any, and I think the reality of the politics of this nomination is not going to be about their actual records.
(...)
WILEY: So I would expect that we’re going to see Republicans in particular looking for things they can make soundbites out of to be the red meat for Fox News, but that has nothing to do with any actual yellow flags.
(...)
