Chief Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, has jumped into the fray against Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become House speaker.
His activism came in the wake of the stinging criticism of Thomas’ high-profile support of extremist right-wing politics even though his wife continued to rule in support of some of the same issues, raising a serious conflict of interest. concerns.
“Conservative organizations and millions of grassroots conservatives … are united in support of 20 members of Congress who are courageous in seeking to change the status quo in Washington,” said an open letter published Wednesday by the Conservative Action Project organization and signed by Thomas. and about 70 other right-wing activists and organization officials.
“We stand behind him and with him in his courageous effort to find a Speaker of the House who will represent conservative interests,” the letter added.
Most of the 20 “courageous” lawmakers, as the letter says, who voted against McCarthy in repeated bids to become speaker, have rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election, although there is no evidence of claims of widespread voter turnout. fraud.
Thomas supported the rebels on January 6, 2021, although he testified to members of the House of Representatives election committee investigating the riots in the US Capitol that he had no evidence of election fraud.
Text messages previously released by the committee reveal how Ginni Thomas constantly pushed Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to do what he could to undermine the outcome of the 2020 election and stay in power.
Thomas was joined in signing the letter by Cleta Mitchell, a controversial lawyer who was present on the phone between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election when the president then demanded that Raffensperger “find” just enough votes to replace him. losing to Joe Biden became a victory. That call is now at the center of a Georgia grand jury investigation.
Mitchell planned with the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council to challenge the election in the event Trump lost a month before a single vote. Lisa Nelson, ALEC’s CEO, announced to members in early 2020 that the organization had been working with Mitchell on “action items that legislators can take to question the validity” of the election, according to records obtained by the watchdog group Documented.
Thomas has been the target of criticism for his role in extremist right-wing politics even as his wife governs on issues she is passionate about.
Supreme Court justices split on 2020 election issue, but ultimately refused to accept Trump’s claims of election rigging. Clarence Thomas, however, stood out to emphasize voter fraud in sympathy with those who, like his wife, refused to accept the results.
He also stood up when another judge was willing to block the work of the committee from January 6, even when his wife was affected by the decision. Federal law requires all federal judges to recuse themselves from cases in which they cannot be judged fairly.
Norman Orenstein, scholar emeritus of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, called it a “huge scandal” that Clarence Thomas continued to rule on the issue of his wife’s “radical rebellion”.
As for McCarthy, the House adjourned until Friday after he lost the 11th vote to become speaker.