Slow Burn - Becoming Justice Thomas | 3. I’m Their Guy
Slow Burn
Slate Audio
4.6 • 25.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2023
⏱️ 52 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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| 0:30.0 | A quick warning. |
| 0:31.0 | This episode has language that listeners may find offensive. |
| 0:37.0 | In 1980, Lilliamic Ewen had an important job on Capitol Hill. |
| 0:41.1 | She worked for Joe Biden on the Senate Judiciary Committee. |
| 0:44.0 | But that November, the Democrats got trounched at the ballot box. |
| 0:48.0 | And Mick Ewen was worried about her future. |
| 0:51.0 | When you lose control of the Senate, you lose one-third of your |
| 0:55.4 | budget. So that means one-third of the staff had to be fired. So there was panic in the streets. |
| 1:06.0 | One day in the waning hours of Democratic Party rule, |
| 1:09.0 | McEwen and her colleagues came up with a plan. |
| 1:12.0 | What we were going to do was we were going to make friends with the Republicans so that if we lost |
| 1:19.3 | our jobs, then we'd work for a Republican because the Republicans would have the money. |
| 1:26.0 | In the middle of that conversation she caught a glimpse of someone in the hallway, |
| 1:31.0 | Clarence Thomas, an aid to Missouri Senator John Danforth. |
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