One of President Joe Biden’s district judge nominees repeatedly refused to answer whether some criminal acts should be overlooked on the grounds of social justice when grilled by a Republican lawmaker.
Anne Traum – Biden’s nominee to serve as US district judge for Nevada – would not give a definitive answer to Republican Louisiana Senator John Kennedy at a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, dodging the yes-or-no question for an entire five minutes.
After Kennedy asked Traum a total of nine times whether she believes “that a criminal act should be forgiven in the name of social justice?” she argued that such a question was a “policy issue” and that law is a “highly individualized and fact-specific process for all who are involved.”
Though she noted that forgiving illegal acts in the name of social justice was “not a view that I have taken in my work,” Traum refused to denounce such a stance, instead telling Kennedy that she did not have “a viewpoint to share.”
Amid the verbal back-and-forth Kennedy appeared to lose his patience with Traum, trying the Biden nominee with a far less challenging question. "What's your favorite color?" the senator asked. It took Traum several seconds to respond “blue.”
“I got one. I’m one for about twenty,” Kennedy said, before declaring that he could not possibly vote for a nominee who is giving non-answers. “I mean that was embarrassing,” he said of the exchange.