America's Talking - Episode 41: Senate votes to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to U.S. Supreme Court

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

Senate votes to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to U.S. Supreme Court. Americans more worried about crime amid violence, retail crime wave. Oil executives: Government policies play 'critical role' in cost of gas. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It seems ever since Donald Trump ran for office every week has some kind of historic once-in-a-lifetime political news story. But this week, the Supreme Court and the confirmation of Katanji Brown Jackson. Welcome to American Focus. I'm Cole McNeely, general manager of America's Talking Network. American Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. You can listen to America and Focus and all of our podcast at AmericasTalking.com. That's America's Talking.com. Now here's your host, Dan McClure.

Caleb. Thank you, Cole, and welcome to the America in Focus podcast. I'm Dan McAleb, executive editor of of the Center Square New Wire Service. American Focus is brought to you by America's Talking Network, the podcast hub, where you can find news, civil conversations, and all of the Center Square's great podcasts. Go to AmericasTalking.com. Joining me today, as he does every week, is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, we're recording this on Friday, April It's been somewhat of an historic week in Washington, D.C., with the confirmation of new Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown, Jackson. You were there covering it. Tell us about it. Yeah, you're right, Dan.

It seems ever since Donald Trump ran for office, every week has some kind of historic, once-in-a-lifetime political news story. But this week with the Supreme Court and the confirmation of Katanji Brown, Jackson. And she was a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit judge. She got a bipartisan support, a 53 to 47 vote. And, you know, that vote, pretty quiet vote may give you the impression that this was a quiet confirmation, but that wouldn't be the case. She faced, you know, pretty significant opposition, not the same as some of her, you know, recent Republican-appointed colleagues. But she was confirmed. She is the first black female justice on the court.

So, you know, a lot of Democrats really lauded this and the historic nature of it. She's replacing outgoing justice, Stephen Breyer. So he hasn't quite left yet. So she's not being sworn in yet. As far as the, you know, we can get into some of the criticisms of her. But there was, you know, a few lines of attack. One being that she was soft on crime, particularly these kind of child pornography cases that she did sentencing for. another was just like that she was radically,

that she was radical outside of the mainstream on issues like gun rights. And other, you know, the other attack was that this was kind of a rushed confirmation hearing because she's not going to be able to, you know, sit on the bench yet. So why the rush? But compared to other hearings, she didn't really, she wasn't that expedited. I mean, it was 40 days overall from her appointment to her confirmation, which, you know, Of course, a lot of people are really happy about it and saying is history making. It doesn't really change the political stance of the court.

She's a liberal appointed, of course, by President Biden, replacing another liberal Stephen Breyer, as you mentioned. So the court will still have a bit of a conservative slant. That's right. I mean, you know, there's always a question of, well, one, is she going to be much more liberal than Breyer, right? I mean, that's a, that's a question that you have to think about. And then you also, you know, sometimes these justices aren't what they seem. John Roberts is a perfect example that appointed by, yeah, Chief Justice, John Roberts, appointed by a Republican president, who's really become a moderate and sometimes left-leaning, you know, swing vote on the court for a time.

So, you know, you're right. You're absolutely right that people were saying this is going to maintain the status quo, but we won't really know until a few years go by. We see some of her ruling, see where she sides on some big issues. Right. And so Breyer has stayed on the courts throughout the confirmation process. Do we know yet when Brown Jackson will actually be seated on the court, start hearing cases, start ruling on cases?

I haven't seen the official word on that, but I would expect it. in the next term. So she'll take over, start hearing cases. It seems to we've had kind of a flurry of appointments recently. And, you know, some have been more controversial than others. A lot of people were hard on Republicans and said that, you know, that they treated Jackson poorly, right? And they even tried to make some racial claims about that.

But I think on the Republican side, the glove, we talked about this a little bit on a recent podcast, you and I. But the gloves have come off when it comes to the Supreme Court nominations after what happened with Justice Brett Kavanaugh in particular, the allegations, the kind of the big show that that was on both sides. It kind of the way these allegations got turned into theatrics got turned into one of the most bitter political fights that we've seen in a while. Republicans ultimately came out on top on that because they had the numbers. but it really soured these confirmation processes forever, or at least, you know, for the foreseeable future. I guess moving it forward, the next question is, will President Biden have the opportunity to nominate another Supreme Court Justice in the final three years of his first term in office? There's a little bit of controversy surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas.

there is no indication that he plans to step down from the court. There's been no indication that anyone else plans to retire. Any insight or thoughts there? Yeah, you're right that Clarence Thomas did have some health issues. He seems to have recovered from him now. And we see this pattern where justices will, you know, they'll retire when a president is in office of the same party that appointed them. And I think that's mostly to keep the balance.

So, you know, there are exceptions to that, especially when one of the justices passed away, as did Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Democrat appointed justice, who was replaced by Amy Coney Barrett, a Republican appointed justice. So that's where you often get those swings when a justice passes away or when Republicans or Democrats run in office so long that the retirement is kind of unavoidable. That doesn't usually happen because, you know, nowadays we kind of swing back and forth in a pendulum. of dissatisfaction with either political party. Just, this is the nature of the modern politics. But Clarence Thomas, go ahead. I was going to say just in the case of Stephen Breyer, who stepped down,

there was conjecture that he was sort of pressured into stepping down because of his age. Because he was a liberal on the court and President Biden is the president, Democrats wanted him to step down while President Biden could dominate his replacement. Right. And it's not just that, because Biden is still going to. to be in office for three years, you know, it's also the Senate. And Democrats are expecting to lose a lot of seats in the House and probably a majority in the Senate come November. All the polling is leaning that way. You know, we often see when a one party has full control

that there's a pushback in the midterms. We saw that with the Tea Party pushing back against the Obama administration. And so we're Republicans won huge numbers. And so I think you know, the just political wisdom in the air here in D.C. is that Democrats are going to lose big in November. And so Republicans have shown, you know, with Merrick Garland, that they are not afraid to dig in their heels and totally shut down a Democrat appointed justice, even at some political costs, potentially. And so I think Democrats very likely could lose the Senate majority that they need to confirm these justices. Right. Well, let's move on. Casey, you wrote a story at the center square.com this week about a new poll that shows Americans

are concerned significantly about rising crime, particularly violent crime, retail theft, things like that. Tell us, tell us about this. Yeah, Dan, have you seen these videos, Dan, these viral videos where people will just walk into a CVS or Walgreens with a garbage bag, a few people, and they'll just, pour all these items in and just walk out unhindered. And people will video because they're kind of shocked and astonished. I don't know if you've seen any of these. Oh, yeah.

Can't avoid them if you're on social media. Exactly. And so, you know, I think this is kind of outreach to a lot of people, but it's actually been going on for a few years, especially in places like California where a lot of the, it's not been decriminalized, but the penalties have been reduced on shoplifting so much that people aren't afraid to shoplift.

and they're not afraid of getting caught, and they're not afraid of being prosecuted, especially. So, you know, you can, you know, in California, you could steal, you know, $800 worth of, you know, makeup remover and makeup products from a, from a Walgreens and not face any kind of, you know, serious charges or anything, and sell those online and make a profit. And that's the other part of this.

I think that a lot of people don't understand is this organized retail crime wave. It's not just people who, who, you know, because your instinct may be, well, what do you get from a CVS? If you need to steal from a CVS, maybe you really need it. But it's not that, it's not that simple. People aren't just stealing bags of chips because they're hungry. They're stealing a ton of makeup supplies.

They're stealing a lot of cleaning supplies or things like that. And then selling it on Amazon, on different places online. And it's become really a business where you have like a pyramid and people, you know, go out, they steal things, they bring it back to the warehouse and they sell it online. And so it's become really like organized crime. actually. It's hitting those businesses a second time because you can imagine these businesses are selling, also selling things online. And so now you are competing in the marketplace with goods that were stolen from you. So not only were you stolen from, but now your online

sales could be diminished because people are selling those things online. So that's becoming really common, especially in California and New York. You know, I have here that Walgreens shut down 22 locations in San Francisco. San Francisco, you know, I don't know if we have any listeners there, maybe not, but they're kind of becoming known for the lawlessness, and they're getting this reputation. And I think all of this,

along with the huge spike in violent crime we've seen in the last two years, has Americans very concerned about crime. So this newly released Gallup polling found out that 53% of Americans are worry, a quote, great deal about crime, which is kind of like the very concerned

versus concerned level. That's the highest level since 2016. On top of that, there's 27% Americans who are at a fair amount, right? So that is about 80%. You know, don't take my math on that, but that's about 80% of Americans who are concerned about crime, the vast majority, and we're seeing the highest levels in a few years.

And so it's just kind of playing in to a lot of narratives, the narrative around defunding the police that we've seen, a lot of the riots that we saw in 2020, the rising violent crime, which really soared in 2020 and is also elevated last year. So I want to point out another thing, Casey, that seems to be changed, particularly in these larger cities where you're seeing these massive increases in both violent crime and this retail theft, these operations, these group operations, smash and grabs, and whatnot, is that the election of of activist prosecutors and activist judges who are softer on crime, who aren't prosecuting

to the fullest extent of the law, some of these cases. Many say it's emboldened these criminals. They know they're not going to face prison time or whatever. So it'll be interesting to see how this concern over crime affects, when we talk about elections, we focus on, you know, Congress and U.S. Senate and whatnot. there'll be plenty of prosecutors and judges on the ballot in November as well. So it'll be interesting to see if this concern about crime changes who voters elect to those offices. Yeah, that's absolutely right.

And this has actually been going on for several years. It's part of a concerted effort by the progressive wing in the Democratic Party to infiltrate all levels of the justice system with these progressive prosecutors. One of the biggest funders is George Soros. It's become kind of a controversial thing. a point of, you know, investigation, investigative journalism things. But George Soros is like a Democratic mega donor. And you can even look at articles from several years ago showing that he's channeling millions of dollars into these local district attorney campaigns in various states,

you know, different prosecutors to get these very progressive prosecutors in place. And we actually saw a recent governor as soon as they were elected, I believe it was in Virginia, that on day one, they fired all the Soros prosecutors, basically. And this was a big story. You know, I guess set back a lot of the progressive wings work. But it shows you that this is a really big issue that's, you know, affecting how crime is prosecuted and how we're getting repeat offenders. And I think, you know, one of the reasons I wanted to cover this story this week is I do

think that crime is resurfacing as a major political issue. You know, crime has often been known as like a lot of. local politics issue. But I think it's really going to hit a national level to this next election cycle, or maybe in 2024 if it continues to rise, especially because, you know, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has done so much to facilitate kind of what we're seeing right now. So one last point on this. We wrote about, we cover all 50 states at the center square, the center square.com. A reporter in Texas wrote this week about this huge rift. that's growing between Austin Police Department, the capital city of Texas, the Austin Police Department, and prosecutors there because the Austin Police Department murders another violent crime, like in many other big U.S. cities, has risen significantly there.

The police do the hard work, the investigations. They arrest these suspects. And then the prosecutors and the judges in particular are, letting them go either on no bond or low bond, and then they go out and they repeat offend. In fact, the Austin Police Department, the police union there, has, on their website, has issued a warning about what they call nine activist judges who have released, accused murderers on either no bond or low bond, and then there are examples of those murderers going back out and committing more violent crimes. it's it's it the justice system is really messed up right now yeah and um the accused murder is getting out so easily is very unusual for any listeners i really know a lot about it that is very unusual um largely

because you can leave it's you're such a flight risk you know if you're a if you've committed a murderer and you're guilty and then they let you out on bond i mean what are you going to do you're going to flee the country you're going to or you're going to you know going to you know going to going up to Canada or down to Mexico or something so you don't face charges. But it has, you're right, this rift is not just in Austin. It's happening in all kinds of cities, you know, and it's part of why policing has become so politicized. It's something to watch. And I'm definitely, we're definitely going to be covering it more at the center square.com.

All right, let's move on then, Casey. And another big story and will be a big story probably for weeks, even months. President Biden has repealed the Title 42 COVID rule that during the pandemic, it made it easier to send immigrants who illegally cross the border back to their home countries, back to Mexico. But he's now repealing that. And there is significant concern that we've seen a huge spike in illegal immigration border crossings under the Biden administration because of his policies. but there's concern that that spike is even going to grow much more significantly because of the repeal of Title 42. Tell us about this. Yeah, I mean, it is an understatement to say that illegal immigration has spiked since Biden took office. It is absolutely soared.

You know, Customs and Border Patrol said last year, or said that last year, you know, we had two million people, about two million people who were caught by Border Patrol coming across the border. That doesn't even count that we have no way of knowing how many, you know, hundreds of, thousands, maybe millions are getting across undetected. Right. Right. I mean, so when you're talking about millions, I mean, that's a, that is a very significant percent.

So we say two million didn't get caught. Two million did. That is, you know, that's one percent of our population, just in a legal immigration. And that doesn't count the legal immigration, which is very significant in America. So this is, I mean, this is huge cultural, ability to shift culture to shift local economies to totally shift demographics and neighborhoods. in a really drastic, really, really fast, and it's happening. And so where this Title 42 rule comes in is basically when Trump came into office,

he said, hey, illegal immigrants can be bringing COVID. So we're going to, we're going to crack down on them. They can't come to the country to wait for things. So we just expel them immediately in the name of COVID. And it's become, you know, one of the main tools of Border Patrol, which has really had their hands, you know, cuffed behind their bags. and what they're able to do by more progress in the administrations and everything. So they embrace this rule.

They've been getting rid of a lot of people at the southern border in particular. But now Biden is repealing that, you know, through the CDC, which is where the order came from. Of course, you know, Democrats are a lot softer in immigration. They're more open to people coming in. Republicans are going to crack down on it and raise concerns about the economic consequences, the federal spending consequences. Are people going to start receiving entitlement benefits? you know, in places like California.

I don't know. I'd be curious to hear what Illinois does for illegal immigrants stand, but in California, you can end up getting government benefits just pretty much as soon as you come across the border. Do you know anything? Is Illinois? Illegal immigrants are eligible for things like Pell Grants for, to get into colleges and universities here, things like that.

Not as drastic as California, but yes, here in Illinois, there are benefits available to illegal immigrants. And let me just swing the conversation. One of the thing is the growing concern about fentanyl smuggling into this country across the border from Mexico. And the amounts of drug overdoses or deaths because of these fentanyl, because of the massive amounts of fentanyl that are being smuggled across the border, there's concerns in all states, not just from border states, that the report. appeal of Title 42 is just going to add to that growing problem. Yeah, and that's why we've seen that Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis say that they're going to start shipping illegal immigrants to some Democratic hotspots around the country.

This is, in some ways, this is kind of political theater, but it's really interesting to see if they actually follow through with it. You know, Greg Abbott said he's going to ship them to the steps of Capitol Hill, right? And, you know, I'm in D.C. And if he actually does that, especially on a significant level, by the thousands, it would really affect the city a lot. I mean, I would not underestimate the effect that would have on the city. I mean, D.C. has largely become what a lot of, you know, pundits kind of say it is, which is the elite ruling classes playground where there's, you know,

multi-million dollar mansions. and fancy restaurants and bars and it's kind of just this elite status and especially in the Capitol Hill area. And so too, I don't know where these migrants would go. There would have to be some kind of federal program, federal officers in place waiting for them to get dropped off probably just to put them back on another bus to take them somewhere else because they would just be pulling up on the streets, on the sidewalks. But I think, you know, I think Abbott is acting within his rights and is saying, hey, you know,

You know, we, Texas is bearing all the, so much of the financial burden of all these people. And if you want them to come in, and you can take them. And they're also, you know, DeSantis is sending them to Delaware, which is, of course, Biden's home state. And I think that what this also highlights is kind of the regional nature of this problem, which is there are a few states that are really impacted by this issue. And it's very important to them, states like Texas, Florida, Arizona, California. and the rest of the nation kind of has a luxury of ignoring it. And I think that's kind of once you're sensing here is the frustration with some of these governors is like that they are getting the short end of the stick because northern states

that don't really have to deal with this are just telling Texas and Florida and places like that to get over it. I'd say yes, with the exception of the drug smuggling because we have seen non-border states, attorney general's governors from non-border states saying they have seen since President Biden took office and loosened immigration policies, they have seen significantly more amounts of things like dangerous drugs like fentanyl and other opioids, and as a result, overdoses and deaths because of that. But well, so that's going to be a developing story because Title 42, the enforcement of the

Title 42 rule is going to end in May, and there's growing concern about what that's going to do. So we'll continue to cover that at the CenterSquare.com. Casey, just have a couple of more minutes. I want to talk about one last story, and that has to do with gas prices and who's to blame for the high gas prices. President Biden has tried to put the emphasis on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Other Democrats blame the oil industry for taking advantage of the crisis and artificially keeping gas prices high. There was a hearing this week in Congress where the oil executives themselves push back. Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, we've got a bit of a Mexican standoff on this gas prices issue at issue. And we saw it in a congressional hearing this week where all the top oil executive or so many, many of the top. top oil executives came before Congress. Democrats blasted them and called them to lower prices. Republicans pointed to Democratic energy policies, and Biden is pointing to Putin. So you kind of have this standoff where, you know, Putin, oil companies and Biden slash Democratic energy policies are all blaming one another and are all receiving some blame. but really the people were suffering are, you know, regular Americans who are paying so much more at the pump. And so the kind of arguments that are being made is Biden is saying, hey, you know, Putin's invasion has affected the global oil supply.

That's why we're seeing such high prices. The pushback on that is, hey, you know, we've been seeing high prices rise and rise since Biden took office. Well before. Well before, yeah, well before the Russian invasion. Of course, the invasion has made it worse. But you cannot blame this whole trend or even, I'd say, most of this. rising trend of prices on Putin. So then it leaves the oil companies, you know, Democrats will say the oil companies are making big profits. And that shows that they have, you know, room to give on these

gas prices. Now, what they said in their hearings this week, I mean, it was a long, long hearing. So there's a lot of things that were said. But one of the salient points was that one oil company doesn't determine the price of, you know, barrels of oil around the world and in the U.S. and there's a lot more going into it. And the biggest thing that goes into it is supply. And they point to government policies, which have the biggest impact on supply. Since Biden took office,

he's really done a lot to inhibit pipeline development, federal leasing for oil and gas, really to discourage the expansion of domestic oil and gas production. And he's looked to overseas groups like OPEC to fill in the gaps there to increase the supply. apply to lower prices. And so you just kind of stand off. A lot of people get to blame, but ultimately, it's the American people who are feeling the pain. Right. And of course, Biden is, I don't want to use the word caving, but he's had pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to,

to, you know, lower emissions in the name of reversing climate change. But it doesn't make any sense to me that you would put more restrictions on U.S. gas production, oil and gas production, but then ask your enemies to boost oil and gas production. Climate change is something that's worldwide, right? Right. I mean, this is what we see in all the climate and energy debate, though, is we put all these restrictions on ourselves, and then China says, hey, we promise we'll start doing that in 10 years.

You know, I mean, this is, this is like the common theme is that the U.S. keeps trying to fall on this sword of climate change to save the planet while our adversaries around the world are happy to let us do that while they you know china is a huge producer of coal i'm not talking about what gas me coal is a major uh a major economic factor for china and that's not going anywhere anytime soon they're growing they've been expanding coal production and so this idea that like the whole world is united to stopping climate change just practically it's not happening well one thing is clear that uh gas prices are high, it's hurting consumers everywhere, and it doesn't look like they're going to be coming

down anytime soon. But Casey, that is all the time we have this week. To our listeners, just a reminder, you can find all of the Center Squares podcast at AmericasTalking.com. Take a look, please subscribe. There is no cost. That's americastocking.com. For Casey Harbour, I'm Dan McKalib. We'll talk to you next week.