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Ingraham Gets Brutal Reminder After Saying SCOTUS Nominee of President With Low Approval Shouldn't Be Confirmed
Fox News

Amid the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings, far-right Fox News host Laura Ingraham was eager to amplify conservative misgivings with President Joe Biden's nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Given that Judge Jackson is one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees in modern history and has earned a " well qualified" rating from the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, it's no surprise that Ingraham had to grasp at straws.

Watch below.

Ingraham told viewers:

"Rushing to approve a Supreme Court nominee of a President with an approval rating that always seems to be hitting new lows? That, my friends, is a violation of the basic sacred duty that each and every Senator—himself or herself—has agreed to. That means every word of the oath that they took to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution, that is an oath just as sacred as the oath that the nominees have to swear to as well."

Never mind that the Constitution Senators are sworn to—as Ingraham notes—protect and defend explicitly tasks the Senate with approving judicial nominees, but a look back into more recent Supreme Court confirmations calls the sincerity of Ingraham's screed into question.

Ingraham suggested that a President's poll numbers should inform Senators' decisions on whether or not to confirm a nominee. Biden's average approval rating currently hovers at around 42 percent.

On April 7 of 2017, Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to the Supreme Court, filling the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia, which Senate Republicans had left vacant for nearly a year, until after Trump's 2017 inauguration. At the time of Gorsuch's confirmation, Trump's average approval rating was 40.4 percent.

On October 6, 2018, the Senate narrowly confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Court. Trump's average approval rating at that time was 42.4 percent.

And on October 26, 2020—as Americans were casting early ballots in the 2020 election, which Trump would famously lose—the Senate confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the nation's highest Court. Trump's average approval rating? Slightly higher, at 42.7 percent.

Despite Trump's historically low approval ratings during his time in the White House, Ingraham reliably advocated for his Supreme Court picks on the Fox News airwaves.

What's more, though Biden's approval rating is currently in the 40s, Judge Jackson has seen overwhelming public support for her nomination. According to a Gallup poll published just yesterday, 58 percent of Americans want to see Jackson confirmed, virtually tying her with Justice John Roberts for the highest public support of a Supreme Court nomination in American history.

Ingraham's argument crumbled under scrutiny, with social media users reminding her of Trump's abysmal poll numbers at the time.



The mockery was instant.

Nice try, but no.