Progressive advocacy groups launched a new ad Wednesday attacking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over his wife’s attendance of the pro-Trump rally on Jan. 6, 2021, calling for him to resign or be impeached.
MoveOn.org, Demand Justice and Working Families Party published an image of Justice Thomas with text reading, “You can’t impartially call ‘balls and strikes’ when your wife is in the game.”
The baseball reference is to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who has said justices must be umpires who call balls and strikes.
“Ginni Thomas aided and abetted an insurrection against America to throw out the results of an election, and then Justice Thomas tried to help cover it up by not recusing himself from the case where Trump tried to hide White House documents, including Ginni Thomas’ texts,” said Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn. “Justice Thomas has clearly demonstrated he is not fit to serve on the Supreme Court and must resign or be impeached.”
In recent weeks, Democrats on Capitol Hill have called for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from any cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and any disputes related to former President Donald Trump’s failed reelection bid.
The calls come after news broke that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, Justice Thomas’ wife, had exchanged text messages with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows challenging the 2020 election results and showing she attended the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally in Washington.
Mrs. Thomas said she left the Jan. 6 rally before the former president spoke and any violence erupted.
“I was disappointed and frustrated that there was violence that happened following a peaceful gathering of Trump supporters on the Ellipse on Jan. 6,” she told the Washington Free Beacon.
“There are important and legitimate substantive questions about achieving goals like electoral integrity, racial equality and political accountability that a democratic system like ours needs to be able to discuss and debate rationally in the political square. I fear we are losing that ability.”
There are no formal recusal requirements for Supreme Court justices, and advocacy groups for years have been pushing Congress to set some sort of standard to avoid conflicts of interest.
Liberals argue that Justice Thomas shouldn’t have considered cases weighing the disclosure of records related to the Jan. 6 attack and cases disputing the 2020 election.
A recently published Politico/Morning Consult poll showed that 53% of voters say Justice Thomas should recuse himself from any case related to the 2020 election. The poll was conducted April 1-4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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