Best Of 2022 | Ginni Thomas Wanted a Revolution
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is a fervent right-wing activist. She was also a supporter of the attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, as evidenced by a batch of texts shared with the congressional committee investigating January 6th.
The Ginni Thomas texts create a conflict of interest for Justice Clarence Thomas as he hears cases pertaining to the insurrection. But the Supreme Court is not expected to do much to dispel notions of bias. Why?
Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer covering courts and the law for Slate.
This week as we ease out of summer, we are replaying some of our favorite episodes from the last year. This episode originally aired March 30, 2022.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think that the holidays feel like frozen noses. I love walking with the dog for long periods of time. |
| 0:10.0 | Hopefully it's snowing and you've got to wrap up warm. So I think a frozen nose is a sweaty armpit |
| 0:15.0 | because your wrapped up so warm but then you're climbing hamps and heath and you get to the top |
| 0:20.0 | and you're like, and then you can see the breath but then your nose is still freezing to touch. |
| 0:25.0 | Join in every sip with red cups now back at Starbucks. |
| 0:30.0 | Hey everyone, this week as we ease out of summer, we're going to replace some of our favorite episodes from the last year. |
| 0:37.0 | I'm going to start off with a conversation that will only become more relevant in the coming weeks. |
| 0:42.0 | It's a profile of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Ginny. |
| 0:47.0 | The January 6th committee has been circling around her for months but Slade's Marked Joseph Stern. |
| 0:53.0 | He's been thinking about Ginny Thomas for years. We recorded this conversation with him back in March. |
| 0:59.0 | Alright, here's the show. |
| 1:08.0 | Slade's Marked Joseph Stern has been keeping an eye on Ginny Thomas for a while now. |
| 1:13.0 | It has not been difficult. She's outspoken. |
| 1:16.0 | So she used to run a Facebook page that was public. |
| 1:21.0 | This was back in 2018. |
| 1:24.0 | It was a dark place, truly. I mean, I did feel like in part I was an anthropologist. |
| 1:31.0 | And in the Trump years, I would have thought she'd be celebrating all the time. |
| 1:35.0 | That she'd be like, yay, thank you President Trump. You know, you did this. You did that. |
| 1:39.0 | I'm so happy that your agenda is finally happening. But instead, it was all rage and paranoia all the time. |
| 1:47.0 | And frankly, I think that's what first drew me to her page because it was not what I would have expected from someone who is like a lifelong lobbyist for the GOP who was getting access to the White House. |
| 2:00.0 | Because she'd won. Yeah, she won. |
| 2:03.0 | When Mark says these posts were angry and strange, he means Ginny Thomas would post stuff about how the parkland shooting survivors were a special kind of stupid. |
... |
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