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Mass. AG Maura Healey says Justice Clarence Thomas ‘needs to think about stepping down’
"It's just so wrong, and what Ginni Thomas did in those texts is unbelievable."
Politics
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on Thursday said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should consider resigning after the texts his wife sent to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urging him to overturn the 2020 election results surfaced last week.
Speaking on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio,” Healey, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, condemned Virginia “Ginni” Thomas’s correspondence with the senior Trump aide in the days and weeks after the November 2020 presidential election.
“What Ginni Thomas did in those texts is unbelievable. It is unbelievable. And Clarence Thomas obviously should recuse himself,” Healey said. “I think he needs to think about stepping down altogether.”
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The texts, 29 in total, came to light in documents provided to the House committee that’s investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The messages have sparked demands for Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any future cases related to the 2020 election and the attack on the Capitol.
Healey’s comments came Thursday as “BPR” co-host Margery Eagan referenced how Boston Police Officer Joe Abasciano attended the insurrection but has so far not faced consequences, as his involvement still remains under investigation within the department.
Abasciano is now living in New Hampshire and is on paid medical leave, The Boston Globe reported last week.
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Healey said to Eagan: “You point to this Boston police officer who was at the Capitol. How about Ginni Thomas? How about the wife of a U.S. Supreme Court justice? You want to talk about problems — that is a serious problem.”
The U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts “should be working on ethics rules that apply to them, because apparently, as ironic as it is, they think that they are above the law,” Healey added.
“They are not beholden to any ethics, to any rules,” Healey said. “It’s just so wrong.”
Healey called Ginni Thomas’s involvement in the matter “absolutely shameful.”
Ginni Thomas attended the “Stop the Steal” rally hosted by Trump before the mob ransacked Congress, she has said.
“I hope that the investigations continue to get to the bottom of it and really shed light on what was going on, right? (There’s) a lot of talk about, you know, people randomly showing up. She was part of that,” Healey said. “She’s at the center of Washington establishment power, you know, and part of that concerted calculated effort on Jan. 6, and in the days before and after. That is a problem.”
As for other federal government-related news, Healey was also asked about Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s stance against voting for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination.
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“Did we expect anything less?” Healey responded. “I mean, the guy is pathetic. He is spineless … honestly, does anyone care about Lindsey Graham? He does nothing. He stands for nothing but himself.”
Healey also took aim at Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, who came under fire for questioning Jackson about an antiracist children’s book during a hearing.
“To watch somebody like Ted Cruz, I mean — these guys don’t even belong in the same room with (Jackson). They don’t belong in the same building with her,” she said. “You know, Ted Cruz, who went to Harvard Law School, he could not carry her books.”
Healey described Jackson as “a person of impeccable qualities” who deserves an “easy confirmation.”
“In any event, she’s going to get confirmed and she’s going to go on the Supreme Court and that is going to be huge for this country,” she said. “And I’m thrilled about that.”
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