At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) questioned Karla M. Campbell, nominee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, about her past work and associations.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Judge Lopez, I'm going to quickly note there's a reason the Democrats have scheduled you
00:04on this panel, because you have a long pattern of sentencing criminal defendants to egregiously
00:10light sentences, including one child molester who molested a four-year-old and a nine-year-old
00:15and you sentenced him to only six years in prison, including, as we heard before, one
00:20woman who was responsible for killing her one-year-old son, who was coated in fentanyl,
00:29his pajamas were coated in fentanyl, his sheets were coated in fentanyl.
00:33You could have sentenced her to 30 years, you sentenced her to only four years.
00:37It's an egregious pattern, but the reason you're put on this panel is the Democrats
00:41know that most Republicans will not have time to question you about that terrible record,
00:46because your colleague on this panel, her record is even worse.
00:49Ms. Campbell, I will say I have seen some astonishing nominees from this administration,
00:55but I have to admit your record takes the cake.
01:00A judge should not be a political activist.
01:04Your record demonstrates to me a long history of being a political activist, but not just
01:10an activist, an activist who affiliates with extreme and radical organizations.
01:16Now, when Senator Grassley asked you about the workers' dignity organization, you gave,
01:24I think, a deliberately misleading answer.
01:26You said you did not represent them, and that convinced Senator Grassley not to continue
01:31on that line of questioning.
01:33You have been a legal advisor to that organization since 2013.
01:37That is what you have publicly printed on your AVO biography.
01:44It is what has been described in the Tennessee Bar Association when you were nominated that
01:49explicitly says she served as a legal advisor for local workers' rights, nonprofit workers'
01:54dignity.
01:55Now, why is it you are distancing yourself from them?
01:57The reason is because they are utterly radical.
02:00If you look at this group that you have served as the legal advisor for, for over a decade,
02:06this is an openly Marxist organization.
02:09This is a communist organization.
02:12Now those words are not said lightly, according to their own characterization of their views.
02:19This group says there is no election outcome that improves conditions for workers.
02:23The laws of this country have never worked for our people, and now that the system is
02:27crumbling, we will continue to stand in community and solidarity with each other.
02:30The only way we win in a world we deserve is by building a multiracial, working-class
02:36revolution that can push out white nationalism, violent state racism, and the capitalist class
02:42that is desperately clutching to hold control and profits as the people rise up.
02:47Why have you spent a decade as a legal advisor to an openly communist and Marxist organization?
02:58I don't think your microphone is on.
03:01I apologize, Senator.
03:02If I could briefly clarify, more than a decade ago, probably for the course of two or three
03:09years, I served on an advisory board that helped this, at the time was supposed to be
03:16a non-profit workers' rights organization, get set up and get started.
03:21Did you know they were a communist organization?
03:23Senator, at that time, they did not express these kinds of views.
03:27It was an organization.
03:28So this is new.
03:30This wasn't the case then?
03:31Yes.
03:32And I have not been affiliated with them in more than a decade.
03:35You're aware that your current profile that you have up, your legal bio, says you are
03:39right now an advisor to them?
03:41I apologize for any confusion about that.
03:44So your testimony under oath, and that's all right, the facts will come out, but your
03:47testimony, I want to make it explicit.
03:49Your testimony under oath is that you have done absolutely nothing and had zero contact
03:54with them for how long?
03:59I have not served on their advisory board for-
04:01You've done absolutely nothing and had zero contact with them for how long?
04:05Please answer the question.
04:06Many, many years.
04:07How many?
04:08I don't know, sitting here today.
04:09It's been many years.
04:10If you look at other statements from this organization, because they are radicals.
04:15They are radicals.
04:16If you look also, this is the same group in 2020.
04:20They called for abolishing ICE, abolishing prisons and detention centers, and abolishing
04:24the police.
04:26Why did you volunteer for a communist organization that calls for abolishing ICE and abolishing
04:31the police?
04:32Senator, I have never seen these comments before.
04:36You didn't know who you were volunteering for?
04:38I was not a volunteer for them at that time.
04:39You were a legal advisor.
04:40Were you paid?
04:41No, I was not.
04:42Then you were a volunteer.
04:43If you volunteered to be a legal advisor, you were a volunteer.
04:46Why did you volunteer?
04:48Do you support abolishing ICE?
04:49Senator, at this time, I had-
04:51Do you support abolishing ICE?
04:52I do not, Senator.
04:53Well, it's amazing because a minute ago, you also told Senator Graham that the Tennessee
04:57Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition that has a manifesto calling for abolishing ICE,
05:03you said you had nothing to do with it, which is fairly astonishing because on page three
05:08of their manifesto, they thank you by name for what they say.
05:13We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their thoughtful feedback
05:17and input.
05:18This platform would not have been possible without their expertise.
05:21Are they lying?
05:23Senator, I'm not familiar with that manifesto.
05:28Are they lying?
05:29Did you provide any assistance?
05:31Did you give feedback and input, which is what they say on the cover page?
05:36Senator, I didn't even know that existed, and so no, I did not provide input on it.