Joe Scarborough and the panel of “Morning Joe” had a good laugh on Wednesday morning as they discussed some of the “ridiculous questions” that Republican senators asked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during the confirmation hearings for an open seat on the Supreme Court.
For their part, the panel tried to hold it together — at first. Speaking very seriously, Scarborough criticized Sen. Lindsey Graham for asking Jackson to rate how religious she is on a scale of one to 10. Scarborough noted that he’d be hard pressed to think up a “less scriptural based” question.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed, saying that there were “so many things wrong” with the question.
Scarborough then turned to The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson for his input, speaking as someone who “grew up in the church in the South” as Scarborough did. And from there, the jokes started flowing.
“That’s somewhere in Deuteronomy or something like that, you know, the scale,” Robinson shot back, prompting the entire table to start cracking up.
Jeffrey Goldberg, of The Atlantic, joked that he would’ve enjoyed seeing Jackson play off it and joke that her “Christianity goes to 11,” making an obvious reference to “This Is Spinal Tap.” That said, Goldberg also complimented how “masterful” Jackson’s handling of the situation was.
Robinson agreed: “That was the one time in which, to me, she just stiffened. She said, ‘I am not gonna answer this ridiculous question.’ She just was not having it.”
Scarborough then got serious once more, coining a new phrase to sum up the questions that Republican senators lobbied at Jackson.
“The grievance signaling this week has been extraordinary,” Scarborough said. “Trademark ‘Republican Grievance Signaling. RGS’ And this week it has been on full display.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment here.
