Slow Burn - Becoming Justice Thomas | 3. I’m Their Guy
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2023
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Clarence Thomas got nominated to the Supreme Court, his behavior during the 1980s would get put under a microscope. To understand who Thomas was then and who he is today, you need to hear how he treated the women he worked with. You also need to hear from the woman who knew him best during those critical years: his ex-girlfriend Lillian McEwen.
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Season 8 of Slow Burn is produced by Joel Anderson, Sophie Summergrad, Sam Kim, and Sofie Kodner.
Josh Levin is the editorial director of Slow Burn.
Derek John is Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts.
Susan Matthews is Slate’s executive editor.
This episode was edited by Josh Levin, Derek John, Sophie Summergrad, and Joel Meyer.
Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director.
Our theme music is composed by Alexis Cuadrado. Artwork by Ivylise Simones.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.3 | A quick warning. This episode has language that listeners may find offensive. |
| 0:32.3 | In 1980, Lulea McEwen had an important job on Capitol Hill. She worked for Joe Biden on |
| 0:40.6 | the Senate Judiciary Committee. But that November, the Democrats got trounced at the ballot box |
| 0:46.4 | and McEwen was worried about her future. When you lose control of the Senate, you lose |
| 0:52.7 | one third of your budget. So that means one third of the staff had to be fired. So there |
| 1:00.4 | was panic in the streets. One day in the waning hours of Democratic party rule, McEwen and |
| 1:08.3 | her colleagues came up with a plan. What we were going to do was we were going to make |
| 1:12.6 | friends with the Republicans so that if we lost our jobs, then we'd work for Republican. |
| 1:22.2 | Because the Republicans would have the money. |
| 1:25.4 | In the middle of that conversation, she caught a glimpse of someone in the hallway. Clarence |
| 1:29.9 | Thomas, an aide to Missouri Senator John Danforth. And I said, there is one now. So I literally |
| 1:38.9 | jumped up out of the seat and everybody that I left behind was laughing as I ran down |
| 1:43.5 | the hall after him. |
| 1:45.7 | McEwen had met Thomas before. It'd get together of black congressional staffers. But they weren't |
| 1:50.9 | exactly friends. |
| 1:52.5 | I caught up to him and I said, you want to go out for coffee? It's the first thing I could |
| 1:57.0 | think of. Of course, I don't even drink coffee. And he was completely and absolutely bewildered |
... |
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