White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took office only two months ago… and she’s already made some embarrassing mistakes on the microphone.
On Monday, Jean-Pierre mistakenly referred to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “Judge Thompson,” while also mischaracterizing about a remark by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
On his YouTube channel Saturday, Cruz criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which brought same-sex marriage to all 50 states in 2015.
“Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” Cruz said, according to CNN. “Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states. We saw states before Obergefell, some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships. There were different standards that the states were adopting.”
Jean-Pierre fielded questions about Cruz’s remark while giving a press conference on Monday… and she embarrassed herself with her response.
“It should raise concerns,” Jean-Pierre said of Cruz’s remark. “As we know from the Dobbs decision, one of the things that we saw from — from Judge Thompson is that they’re looking to go further, whether it’s privacy, contraception, or marriage equality.”
Jean-Pierre said “Judge Thompson” instead of “Justice Thomas.”
She made two mistakes in the span two words. Good try!
The press secretary faced ridicule on Twitter, with some users comparing her to her tongue-tied bosses in the Biden-Harris administration.
Take a look —
Does Biden's White House Press Secretary not know who Justice Clarence Thomas is?
"From the Dobbs decision, one of the things that we saw from from *Judge Thompson* is that they are looking to go further." pic.twitter.com/xg59oes9wv
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 18, 2022
At another point in the press conference, Jean-Pierre called him “Judge Thomas,” with the correct name but the incorrect title.
Shockingly, the White House transcript indicated that Jean-Pierre had made a mistake. In the past, President Joe Biden’s White House has omitted certain embarrassments from the transcripts. Earlier this month, a White House transcript omitted the applause given to one of Biden’s hecklers.
After the conference, Jean-Pierre faced criticism not only for butchering Thomas’ name, but also for the substance of her remark.
Jean-Pierre said, “They’re looking to go further, whether it’s privacy, contraception, or marriage equality.”
Thomas wrote in favor of overturning Obergefell last month. Still, Thomas has apparently failed to persuade any of his colleagues so far. Over the years, he has become known for writing inconsequential opinions.
“It is difficult to point to a single truly significant majority opinion Thomas had written,” CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin wrote in a 2007 book. “Many of his assignments were unanimous opinions on minor subjects—’dogs,’ in the Court’s parlance.”
Cruz, unlike Thomas, wants the the Obergefell decision to stand. Cruz said that it was too late to return same-sex marriage to the states.
“You’ve got a ton of people who have entered into gay marriages and it would be more than a little chaotic for the court to do something that somehow disrupted those marriages that have been entered into in accordance with the law,” Cruz said, according to CNN. “I think that would be a factor that would, would counsel restraint, that the court would be concerned about.”
Jean-Pierre made a bold claim, and she provided only one example.
She faced accusations of scaremongering from a columnist at Townhall.com.
Still, the House Democrats have introduced the Respect for Marriage Act, and the House is set to vote on it Tuesday.
The Horn editorial team