Yes, Romney Flip-Flopped on KBJ Nomination
- Sean Davis at The Federalist claimed Romney flip-flopped on Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson, voting against her before voting for her
- Claims check out and are verified in official government records
- Hard to explain why Sen. Romney would find a person unqualified for a lower court and yet qualified for a higher court
OUR RATING: Good Journalism, no obvious errors!
Indicted Outlet: Sean Davis | Personal Twitter | Link | Archive | 4/5/22
A meme relating to Senator Romney’s potential hypocrisy voting against and then for, Ketanji Brown-Jackson for the Supreme Court was floating around the internet. The post is allegedly from Sean Davis, CEO of TheFederalist.com.
[In full disclosure: this author has been published twice by The Federalist. Both articles were unpaid submissions.]
Here is the share graphic:
So, there are several facts to fact-check here.
- Did Sean Davis really say this on his Twitter feed?
- Did Senator Romney announce that he was voting for Ketanji Brown-Jackson?
- Did Senator Romney previously vote against Ketanji Brown-Jackson to a lower federal court less than a year ago?
- Did KBJ have a history of ‘going easy’ on child molesters and pedophiles?
Here is our rundown on those questions:
On the first, we can see that Sean Davis’ tweet is still up, so we can assume it fairly reflects his views and was posted.
On the second question, we can see that Senator Romney did indeed announce he was going to vote for Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson to the Supreme Court. [1]
Further as to the second question, Senator Romney did vote for Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson to be confirmed to the Supreme Court. [2]
As to the third question, here is the roll call vote from June 24, 2021 where Senator Romney voted against Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson to be elevated to the D.C. Circuit of the Federal Appellate Courts. [3]
In the Congressional Record, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia) notes the history of Brown-Jackson giving light sentences to defendants convicted of owning child pornography described as “child sex torture.” [4]
So, in sum, everything that Sean Davis at the Federalist said, is verified and checks out.
In late March Romney was signaling that he was undecided on Brown-Jackson [5] and then inexplicably votes for her after voting against her previously.
And just in case there was another issue that motivated Romney to change his mind, he does not appear to have stated his reasoning for his changed position. He did go out of his way to denounce the accusations about Brown-Jackson being soft on child pornographers in possession of video of ‘child sex torture’ as being ‘off course.’ [6]
For a guy flip-flopping as much as Romney, maybe we don’t want to know what ‘on course’ looks like.
OUR RATING: Good Journalism, no obvious errors!
Bibliography:
1 ] https://twitter.com/SenatorRomney/status/1511106814175330305
2 ] https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00134.htm
3 ] https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1171/vote_117_1_00231.htm
4 ] https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2022/3/31/house-section/article/h4013-2
5 ] https://www.theblaze.com/news/mitt-romney-says-he-has-not-decided-jackson-supreme-court
6 ] https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/03/22/mitt-romney-ketanji-jackson-child-porn-attacks-wont-impact-vote/
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