- Durbin intervened after Graham kept interrupting Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
- Graham asked Jackson what she thought about Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings.
- "She's had nothing to do with the Kavanaugh hearings," Durbin told Graham.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin on Wednesday intervened in a back-and-forth between Sen. Lindsey Graham and Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson after the South Carolina Republican kept interrupting the judge as she answered questions during her third day of confirmation hearings.
Graham asked Jackson for her positions on undocumented immigrants and voting, and pressed her on her sentencing record in child pornography cases during his 20 minutes of questioning. When his time was nearing its end, Graham repeatedly interrupted Jackson as she tried to answer his questions.
The exchange came to a head when Graham pivoted to ask Jackson about Justice Brett Kavanaugh's 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Graham had exceeded his allotted questioning time, prompting Durbin, the top Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to interrupt him.
"Well please, Mr. Chairman," Graham responded. "It's one minute and 47 seconds. She filibustered every question I had, and she has a right to give an answer. But I'm trying to make a point in 20 minutes."
Graham went on to detail the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh that took center stage in his confirmation battle before the Judiciary Committee, and singled out Democrats on the committee, accusing them of withholding the information until the hearing to blindside Kavanaugh. Democrats, with the exception of Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said they were caught off guard by the accusations against Kavanaugh, just as Republicans were.
"He was ambushed. How would you feel if we did that to you?" Graham asked Jackson.
—Forbes (@Forbes) March 23, 2022
Jackson, who previously mentioned that she had not watched the Kavanaugh hearings, told Graham that she appreciated the "kindness" that every senator had shown her during her confirmation process. Graham cut her off, noting that she's a "very nice person," then continued to speak about the handling of Kavanaugh's confirmation.
"She's had nothing to do with the Kavanaugh hearings," Durbin told Graham.
"No, but I'm asking her about how she may feel about what y'all did," Graham responded forcefully, slamming his hand on the table.
"You won't even let her finish her response," Durbin interjected.
The scuffle led Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, seated beside Durbin, to demand "order" in the hearing room. Durbin then notified Graham again that his time has expired and gave Jackson the opportunity to respond to his questions.
"Senator, I don't have any comment on what procedures took place in this body regarding Justice Kavanaugh," Jackson told Graham.
The conversation shifted back to Jackson's record on child pornography cases. Several Republicans have claimed that Jackson, in her time as a federal district judge, was lenient with child pornography offenders because she imposed sentences shorter than those recommended by federal guidelines. Legal experts have debunked the accusations, saying that they leave out key context and data that Jackson's conduct was within the mainstream of federal judges and that the guidelines are overly severe and outdated. Some Republicans, including Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, have distanced themselves from their GOP colleagues' attacks on Jackson.
Jackson, throughout her confirmation hearings this week, has repeatedly defended her record, denounced the child pornography crimes, and explained to Graham, along with other Republican senators, her job as a judge.
"Every person in all of these charts and documents, I sent to jail because I know how serious this crime is. Every person, I discussed the harm of these terrible, terrible images to the victims who are portrayed in them. I talked about what this crime does to the children who are being abused in these photos," Jackson said Wednesday. "And on the other side of their terms of imprisonment, I ensured that they were facing lengthy periods of supervision and restrictions on their computer use so they could not do this sort of thing again. That's what Congress has required of judges and that's what I did in every case."