comes in. reporter: republican senator ted cruz pressed jackson on her views of critical race theory, an idea that american institutions are inherently racist and something conservatives falsely claim is widely taught in elementary schools. do agree with this book that is being taught to kids that babies are racist? i do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist or though they are not valued or though they are less than, that they are victims, that they are oppressors. i don t believe in any of that. jackson did have a chance to reflect on the historic nature of her nomination to be the first black woman on the high court. this nomination against that backdrop is significant to a lot of people. and i hope that it will bring confidence, it will help inspire
judiciary committee. i want to bring in carol mosley brawn and also daniel holly walker, dean of the howard university school of law whose name was also floated as a possible supreme court nominee. ladies, i m privileged to have both of you on the panel tonight. let me begin with you carol mosley brawn because you have a unique perspective that i want people to hear. i mean, given the fact you were the first african american woman to the senate, the first woman on the senate judiciary committee, i do want to understand what this means to you and the significance of seeing now a black woman having a as a nominee to the supreme court of the united states. well, to begin with, thank you very much for having me tonight to express my views. i am overjoyed that she has been nominated. judge jackson is imminently qualified on every front. this should be, a quote, bulletproof nomination. but the fact is that some of the republicans have decided to make
there were moments that were difficult. i remember there was one of the senators on the committee at the time was comparing abortion to slavery. and quite frankly he looked at me when he asked the question. it s like what is going on here? but the fact of the matter is race runs really close to the surface in our political discourse in this country. and quite frankly i m just delighted because skbruj jackson has done such a masterful job of not going there. she has really been above reproach in terms of her answering these questions even though some of them are very clearly racial or racist, if you will, in nature. and she s not taking the bait. she s been really good. well, we will see if she continues to act in a way that you both have described. senator blackburn is up now. i want to watch, and we ll talk on the other side, ladies. and then she has experiences
as democrats praised jackson other republicans ripped into the nominee with many accusations from, frankly, the fringe right. as we standby cnn s jessica schneider takes us through the most contentious moments of the day so far. reporter: ketanji brown jackson defending her record during hours of intense questioning from republican senators, push back against their broad characterization that she s, quote, soft on crime. in order for us to have a functioning society, we have to have people being held accountable for committing crimes. but we have to do so fairly under our constitution. as someone who has had family members on patrol and in the line of fire, i care deeply about public safety. reporter: but judge jackson s background has not insulated her from republican attacks, particularly claims she handed
pro-life supreme court. and that s that is what it comes down to. it was not you can t it s hard to take some of these questions seriously because they really are about theater. they have nothing to do really with judge jackson s suitability for the court. my mentor in the senate used to make the point that you look for people with a good head and a good heart, and this woman has clearly shown that she has both a good head, is an esteemed legal scholar and got a good heart as well. so i don t know why, i mean, i do know why they re doing it. it s called getting ready for the election and the election cycle and that s what it has to do with. let me bring you in here, you ve been in this proverbial theater so to speak, following 0 along the last two days, i wonder, the committee, have they