You may have heard Justice Clarence Thomas discussed a lot in the news the past few days. This email will catch up on the who, what, and why Alexandria is calling on him to resign from the Supreme Court.
First, the background…
Shocking new reports show that Ginni Thomas – a far-right conspiracy theorist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – personally pressured Trump's White House chief of staff to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In a series of text messages, Ginni Thomas encouraged Trump’s chief of staff to push false claims of voter fraud and pressured him to prevent the election from being certified.
In one text, Thomas tells Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that "Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History".1
Then Justice Thomas refused to recuse himself and voted to hide his wife’s involvement…
Despite his wife's active role in Trump's attempted coup, Justice Thomas failed to recuse himself in a case regarding the release of records related to January 6 and he cast the lone dissenting vote to keep the White House records hidden from the Jan. 6 select committee – including the texts that involved his wife.
In response, Alexandria joined a handful of other Democrats in calling Justice Thomas to resign.
Here’s why this matters, even if it seems unlikely to you that Thomas would resign:
When progressives pushed for the first impeachment of Donald Trump for illegally withholding aid to Ukraine, initially many Democrats internally resisted it. Members of Congress like Alexandria were chastised for being “unrealistic” – saying that it would lead to nowhere.
But Alexandria knew that regardless of the outcome, someone would be left holding the bag on accountability. The question was: “Would we, the House, rather have to answer questions later of why we didn’t act, or have the Senate answer questions of why they acquitted?”
The debate was fierce and the opposition was real, but eventually public and internal pressure mounted to such a level that inaction became untenable for leadership and the party. Impeachment proceeded and when we look back – especially given the current violence against Ukraine by Russia – it’s hard to imagine if the naysayers had won and we chose not to act.
Often what seems like the righteous yet politically foolish thing in the short term ends up being the wisest choice in the long term. That’s why we shouldn’t dismiss any and all actions available to us to hold Clarence Thomas accountable.
What happens if Congress doesn’t hold Thomas accountable?
Congress must understand that a failure to hold Clarence Thomas accountable sends a loud, dangerous signal to the full court that his actions are fair game.
This is a tipping point, and inaction is a decision to erode and further delegitimize the Supreme Court. As Alexandria said, “We must go where the facts take us.”
Thank you for reading and we'll keep you informed about next steps.
– Team AOC
1 - Business Insider
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