Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > alt.atheism > #3454291

Righist Deviant Perverts DeSantis & Trump: Senate Republicans Unhealthy Fixation On Child Porn, By The Numbers

Cross-posted to 5 groups.

Followups directed to: alt.atheism

Show all headers | View raw

Senate Republicans’ unhealthy fixation on child porn, by the numbers
By Dana Milbank
 
 
 

Judging by the numbers, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are 
obsessed with child pornography.

In four days of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown 
Jackson, the phrase “child porn” (or “pornography” or “pornographer”) was 
mentioned 165 times. There were also, according to transcripts, 142 uses of 
“sex” (“sexual abuse,” “sexual assault,” “sexual intercourse,” “sex 
crimes”), 15 of “pedophile,” 13 of “predators,” 18 of “prepubescent” and 
nine of general pornography.

There were only 30 mentions of the First Amendment and 12 of the Bill of 
Rights.

The Republican fixation on pornography continued during Monday’s round of 
statements by senators before the committee advanced Jackson’s nomination 
to the Senate floor. A preliminary transcript showed 41 mentions of “porn” 
or “pornography” and 32 mentions of “sex offenders,” “sexual assault” and 
the like.

Some of the references to sex and child pornography were made by Democrats 
defending Jackson. But the bulk came from the likes of Sens. Josh Hawley 
(Mo.), Ted Cruz (Tex.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) Marsha 
Blackburn (Tenn.) and Mike Lee (Utah). They winked at the QAnon conspiracy 
theorists who believe pedophiles control government by portraying Jackson 
as an ally of monsters who sexually exploit children — even though her 
sentencing record is typical and even though these same Republicans 
elevated half a dozen Trump judicial nominees with similar records in child 
pornography cases.

“I’m not suggesting she likes what’s happening in child pornography,” 
Graham allowed. (Gee, thanks.) But “she has a chance to impose a sentence 
that would deter [child pornography], and she chose not to.”

Lee accused Jackson of “minimizing” punishment for “commercialized efforts 
to profit off child sex torture” and “sadomasochistic conduct.” Cotton 
said, “the child pornography cases are just the most sensational examples 
of her soft-on-crime attitude.”

The ever-mendacious Cruz claimed that “we just last week, after the 
hearing, got information on another case, United States v. Weekes, of an 
individual who raped his 13-year-old niece. Judge Jackson sentenced him to 
half what the prosecutors wanted because he failed to register on a sex 
registry.”

Actually, that case was mentioned during the hearings, on March 22 — in a 
news release issued by Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans.

And Hawley stuffed a straw man. “Judge Jackson’s view is that we should 
treat everyone more leniently because more and more people are committing 
worse and worse child sex offenses,” he claimed, also alleging that “we’ve 
been told things like child pornography is actually all a conspiracy, it’s 
not real.”

Of course, nobody said child pornography is a conspiracy, or not real; the 
supporting examples provided to me by Hawley’s office refer to the QAnon 
conspiracy about pedophiles running the country.

In fairness, child pornography wasn’t Republicans’ only obsession. The 
phrases “critical race theory” or “CRT” came up 66 times during the 
hearing. Cotton claimed that Jackson “seems to have a real interest in 
helping terrorists.” Cruz even argued that “the odds are over 100 percent 
she will vote to give away U.S. sovereignty to international bodies.”

If it’s possible for the odds on anything to be over 100 percent, it’s that 
Republicans will continue their peculiar preoccupation with child 
pornography as the Jackson nomination goes to the Senate floor. “She has a 
particularly curious view about certain kinds of criminal behavior. In this 
particular case, people who would distribute child pornography, of all 
things,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) told Fox News on 
Friday.

Republicans on the committee congratulated themselves for avoiding 
“personal slanders” of the sort they said Democrats inflicted on Brett M. 
Kavanaugh after women accused the Donald Trump nominee of sexual 
misconduct. Yet, they opposed Jackson with the most grievous of personal 
slanders: accusing the Black nominee of secretly promoting racially 
divisive teaching, portraying her as a pal of terrorists and repeatedly 
suggesting she endangers children by having a soft spot for perpetrators of 
heinous sex crimes.

Graham: “Every judge who does what you’re doing is making it easier for the 
children to be exploited.”

Cruz: “I also see a record of … advocacy as it concerns sexual predators.”

Blackburn: “What’s your hidden agenda? Is it to let … child predators back 
to the streets?”

And, of course, there was Hawley, who previewed the hearings by saying 
Jackson’s record “endangers our children.” Three weeks — and eight mentions 
of “prepubescent” — later, Hawley ended Monday where he began. He asserted 
that a “core point” of his disagreement with Jackson is that she believes 
the real victims of child pornography are the perpetrators, not the 
children.

As “personal slander” goes, it doesn’t get much lower.

Back to alt.atheism | Previous | Next — Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Righist Deviant Perverts DeSantis & Trump: Senate Republicans Unhealthy Fixation On Child Porn, By The Numbers c186282 <c186282@nnada.ne> - 2025-07-06 19:17 +0000
  Cleveland black man who raped, robbed multiple women at gunpoint will leave prison 'in a pine box,' attorney says It's Africoon Awareness Month <july2025@jail.time> - 2025-07-07 00:46 +0200
  Cleveland black man gets 110 years for 4 rapes found through DNA tests It's Africoon Awareness Month <july2025@jail.time> - 2025-07-07 01:02 +0200
  Accused Black Serial Rapist Arrested by Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force It's Africoon Awareness Month <july2025@jail.time> - 2025-07-07 01:10 +0200
  Black man sentenced to 33 years in prison for raping woman in downtown parking garage It's Africoon Awareness Month <july2025@jail.time> - 2025-07-07 03:59 +0200

csiph-web