President Biden refused to weigh into the debate over whether Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from cases involving the Jan. 6 riot due to his wife’s involvement in the events that led to that day.
Asked if the justice should recuse himself in cases involving Jan. 6, Biden said at a news conference Monday: ‘I leave that to two entities … one the Jan. 6 committee and two the Justice Department. That’s their judgment, not mine, to make.’
‘I told you I would not tell the Justice Department what to take or not take. I’m not going to tell Congress either,’ he added.
In a series of 29 messages following former President Trump’s loss, the conservative activist Ginni Thomas repeatedly asked then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to work to overturn the election results.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a member of the Judiciary Committee, on Sunday joined the calls for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from matters involving the 2024 election or the fight for Trump documents, after his failure to recuse from the most recent ruling.
‘The facts are clear here. This is unbelievable. You have the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice advocating for an insurrection, advocating for overturning a legal election to the sitting president’s chief of staff and she also knows this election, these cases, are going to come before her husband,’ Klobuchar said.
She told ABC’s This Week: ‘This is a textbook case for removing him, recusing him from these decisions.’
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have issued similar calls.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., had a different take. He told CNN it is ‘kind of misogynistic’ to ask Justice Thomas to recuse on behalf of his wife’s behavior, noting that Ginni Thomas is a ‘private citizen.’
‘She’s an independent, adult woman, it just seems a little strange to me all of these calls for her husband to be what, like, minding her better? Frankly, I think it’s kind of misogynistic.’
‘She’s a private individual. He’s a justice on the US Supreme Court, but I think this idea that he is somehow automatically responsible for everything he says – what does that mean? Does she have to get his permission?’ he added.
Sen. Corey Booker also called for Justice Thomas’ recusal on Sunday. He noted that Justice Elena Kagan has recused herself numerous times, ‘not necessarily because she was conflicted, but because she understood that even the appearance of impropriety would delegitimize the court.’
The Supreme Court ‘needs that legitimacy in this nation,’ Booker said. ‘So clearly, Justice Thomas should have recused himself. That’s not even at question here.’
Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy last week both defended Thomas’s ability to remain impartial, as did Sen. Rick Scott on ‘Fox News Sunday.’
This is an excerpt from Daily Mail.
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