In 2016, when Wikileaks leaked thousands of emails illegally hacked from the servers of the Democratic National Committee by people working for the Russian government, Republicans absolutely refused to discuss what was in those emails. Instead, they said, the real story was the hacking and the leaks.
Just kidding. They delighted in the damage it caused Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump said the Russians didn’t hack anyone. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, Jr., along with many of their friends in the GOP, tweeted and talked about them relentlessly.
I don’t care how the draft leaked. That’s a sideshow.
What I care about is that a small number of conservative justices, who lied about their plans to the Senate, intend to deprive millions of women of reproductive care.
Codifying Roe isn't enough. We must expand the court.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 4, 2022
On Wednesday, following the publishing by POLITICO of a leaked draft opinion from the SCOTUS showing that Roe v Wade protections that guarantee a woman’s right to make private medical decisions in consultation with her doctor, are about to end. The party and, in particular, the man who made sure this would be the case by stonewalling a Democratic president’s SCOTUS nominee and pushing through Trump’s, complained throughout the day that the real story is the leak, a leak for which someone should pay.
As Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)Â pointed out, this is nothing but a sideshow, a distraction from the consequences of the GOP’s tactics, which will include women being forced to give up their bodily autonomy. The man who dismissed calls for an investigation when it was revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas failed to recuse himself in cases where some of the evidence would be texts from his wife does not get to complain about an attack on “the independence of the Supreme Court.”
Josh Hawley, a man who cheered on insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol Building to overturn a democratic election, does not get to weigh in on who deserves legal punishment.
And Donald Trump, Jr., who would be independently wealthy if he had a dollar for every time he or someone related to him said the name “Podesta” in 2016, does not get to complain about leaks.
This was also not a “stunning breach,” or “unprecedented,” as many Republicans have claimed. In fact, the decision in the original bill behind the pending SCOTUS ruling, Roe v Wade, was also leaked early to the press.
According to The Washington Post:
‘It is not true that rulings have never been given to journalists before the announcement of the decision by the court. In fact, the result in Roe v. Wade itself was leaked by a Supreme Court clerk to a Time magazine reporter in January 1973.’
Twitter had a big response to the tweet by Rep. Schiff. Read some of their comments below:
