Last Friday, Sarah covered reports that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had to use the back door to leave Morton’s Steakhouse, as a result of pro-abortion protesters outside the restaurant. During Friday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre even refused to condemn the protests.
Such is a pattern from the White House, though. President Joe Biden himself has done very little to address the harassment that conservative justices face, which, in Justice Kavanaugh’s case, included an assasination plot against him. What statements there have been have come from staff and are pretty lacking, or even full of gaslighting.
The one example appears to be when he gave remarks hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade via the Dobbs v. Jackson decision.
“First, I call on everyone, no matter how deeply they care about this decision, to keep all protests peaceful. Peaceful, peaceful, peaceful. No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable. Threats and intimidation are not speech. We must stand against violence in any form regardless of your rationale,” the president said. There doesn’t seem to be remarks he’s made before or since when it comes to condemning the harassment and intimidation that conservative justices face.
Over the weekend, Justice Kavanaugh received mockery from Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media, most notably from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), as well as POLITICO and Puck News' Julia Ioffe.
On Sunday, while the president was on yet another vacation in Delaware, the press managed to catch up with him to ask about protesters who were outside of the White House.
“Do you have a message, Mr. President, for women who were protesting outside the White House [Saturday],” a reporter asked.
“Yes. Keep protesting,” the president said, “Because–keep making your point. It’s critically important.” He went on to repeat calls for the passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which has also turned into calls to elect more pro-abortion members of Congress, since the bill couldn’t even get a majority of votes in favor in the Senate, let alone get passed the filibuster. Despite what Biden claims, though, the legislation would not merely codify Roe, it would expand it and would lead to doing away with pro-life laws passed at the state level.
The president did not mention conservative justices. He didn’t even call for the protests to be peaceful. He then continued on his bike ride, without any members of the press there asking him about Justice Kavanaugh or any other conservative justice.
ShutDown DC has even offered to pay people if they report a sighting of one of the conservative justices, and will pay them even more if that justice is still there 30 minutes later.
During his Friday evening program, Tucker Carlson mentioned a clever suggestion, as he shared that people should flood ShutDown DC with false tips.
The restaurant where Justice Kavanaugh was dining, has even faced backlash for daring to stand up for their customer. As a result of a statement that Morton’s issued, the restaurant was flooded with fake reservations.
In a now deleted tweet, Travis Allen posted about how he had made a reservation for 20 at the restaurant. Many others took to Twitter to laugh about the fake reservations.
https://t.co/nh6m8MJKVu pic.twitter.com/vYwil0s1oW
— Damin Toell (@damintoell) July 9, 2022
The refusal to condemn, and thus the act of encouraging, went beyond Friday’s press briefing.
During his appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg could hardly have been more dismissive of the protests, which he even excused, and suggested that Justice Kavanaugh deserved such treatment.
"Look, when public officials go into public life, we should expect two things. One, that you should always be free from violence, harassment, and intimidation. And two, you're never going to be free from criticism or peaceful protest, people exercising their First Amendment rights," the secretary said in his response.
But, Justice Kavanaugh was met with harassment and intimidation previously. It does not appear that Buttigieg has addressed or condemned the intimidation of conservative justices, or even the assassination plot against Kavanaugh.
Buttigieg's response only got worse from there:
BUTTIGIEG: Remember, the justice never even came into contact with these protesters, reportedly didn't see or hear them. And these protesters are upset because a right, an important right that the majority of Americans support was taken away.
(CROSSTALK)
BUTTITGIEG: Not only the right to choose, by the way, but this justice was part of the process of stripping away the right to privacy.
As long as I've been alive, settled case law in the United States has been that the Constitution protected the right to privacy. And that has now been thrown out the window by justices, including Justice Kavanaugh who I recall swore up and down in front of God and everyone including United States Congress that they were going to leave settled case law alone.
So, yes, people are upset. They're going to exercise their First Amendment rights.
This came after his husband mocked the situation over Twitter on Friday, which the secretary was asked about.
Sounds like he just wanted some privacy to make his own dining decisions. https://t.co/pAUiYqxIHT
— Chasten Buttigieg (@Chasten) July 8, 2022
Would you and your husband enjoy being hounded out of restaurants by mobs? In DC — or your new “home” state of Michigan? I’m sure there are people who would accommodate that.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 9, 2022
Is this where we want to go & what we want to celebrate? https://t.co/kE1gbZvXet
The Biden administration overall has done very little to support conservative justices, although the White House appears to be looking for congratulations, as evidenced by last Friday's press briefing, when Jean-Pierre reminded that the president signed legislation offering justices better protection. There was no mention made of how the bill was held up for months by the Democratically-controlled House, though, or how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could not have seemed less interested.
The gloves are coming off though, maybe, if Republicans take back control of Congress. As Kevin Daley reported for The Washington Free Beacon, Republicans haven't ruled out impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland over inaction:
Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), who is in line to take over the House Judiciary Committee if Republicans prevail in November, didn’t take a Garland impeachment inquiry off the table in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon. Jordan cited a range of alleged misconduct, from failure to enforce black-letter law to protect clinics and justices, to secret collusion with leftwing groups opposed to parents protesting woke curricula changes.
"That'll be a decision that will be made by the entire conference," Jordan said of an impeachment push.
...
It is a federal crime to demonstrate outside of a judge’s home with intent to influence deliberations. Regular pro-abortion demonstrations outside the homes of the conservative justices seem to fit that bill exactly. The Justice Department has taken no action against protesters as of this writing. Local police told inquiring neighbors that federal agencies are declining to enforce the judicial anti-picketing law, according to a Fox News report.
...
Outside groups are also pressing GOP lawmakers for accountability. Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project, said there is ample reason to remove Garland from office. Davis was nominations chief for Grassley during the Kavanaugh confirmation and led the outside support team for Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation.
"When Republicans reclaim the House in January, they must impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland," Davis told the Free Beacon. "There must be consequences for his dangerous dereliction of duty that has led to highly dangerous attacks on the Supreme Court of the United States."
And yet this behavior is not all that surprising from the Democrats. During Monday's episode of "The Five," co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro offered that this goes back to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who, in 2018, urged people to protest, harass, and chase out members of the administration when they saw them in public. Since then, the Democratic congresswoman has wracked up even more examples of inciting violence, including while outside the Supreme Court on June 24, shortly after the Dobbs decision was handed down.