Sen. Cruz Questions District Judge Nominee: President Biden is ‘Trying to Put Judicial Robes on That Partisan and Radical Agenda’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today questioned President Biden’s District Judge nominee for the Southern District of New York, Dale E. Ho, on his history of extreme and hyper partisan rhetoric. Read excerpts of his remarks below.

WATCH: Sen. Cruz to Biden District Judge Nominee: ‘Your Record Reflects an Extreme Partisan’

In his line of questioning, Sen. Cruz asked:

“This first year in office, President Biden has made a pattern of nominating extremists, partisans, and radicals to serve in the administration, but especially to serve on the bench. And unfortunately, that pattern continues today. Mr. Ho, you will not be surprised that I want to address some questions to you. And, in my view, your record reflects that same pattern of finding someone who has been an extreme partisan, who has been a radical, and President Biden trying to put judicial robes on that partisan and radical agenda. I would note at the outset, that that’s not just my characterization. You yourself have described yourself as ‘a wild-eyed Leftist.’ Further, as someone ‘accused sometimes of seeing discrimination everywhere you look.’ Is that right?”

Mr. Ho responded:

“Senator Cruz, I think the key word in that quote is ‘accused.’”

Sen. Cruz continued:

“Let’s start with the first one, ‘wild-eyed sort of Leftist.’”

Mr. Ho responded:

“Well, again, Senator Cruz, I think I was characterizing how others have caricatured myself.”

Sen. Cruz continued:

“Okay. Well, let’s take a quote you wrote in November 2017. I found it amusing the exchange a moment ago with one of the Democratic senators about ‘oh, some older intemperate statements.’ I would note, just sitting here, this may be a first in that you have tweeted attacks at multiple members of this committee including Senator Lee, Senator Cotton, Senator Blackburn, Senator Cornyn, and far from being intemperate statements when you were a teenager, most of these tweets occurred last year. So in the last 12 months, you have engaged—or the last about 18 months—you have engaged in partisan attacks on multiple members of this committee. But you also wrote in November 2017: ‘In these dark times, I’ve been fortunate to find tremendous sense of purpose in my work as a civil rights lawyer. But as a colleague of mine asked me over lunch recently, Dale, do you do this because you want to help people or because you hate conservatives? What he was getting at is that anger can in fact, be a tremendous source of power. For me, righteous indignation, can provide a sense of moral clarity, and motivate the long hours needed to get the work done. But it’s only a short term burst. It’s not sustaining in the long run.’ Mr. Ho, if you wake up and are Judge Ho, and I recognize that New York is a blue state, but imagine there is someone who considers himself or herself a conservative in the state of New York, who, God forbid, finds themselves in a courtroom where you’re wearing a robe. What comfort do you think that litigant would have that you described the hatred of conservatives, the righteous indignation, the anger at conservatives, as a tremendous source of power for you personally? How does that possibly give anyone comfort that you would be a fair and impartial judge?”

Mr. Ho responded: 

“Thank you, Senator Cruz, for giving me an opportunity to address this. As I mentioned to some other members of the committee, this was a comment that I made in church where I was relaying a joke that someone else had told the point of which was that that kind of temporary sugar rush from being angry at someone, while it can feel powerful in a moment, it’s not the kind of thing that is sustaining for a human being, in the long run, that at the end of the day, if you want to do good work in the world, it has to come from a different place, a place of love for your fellow person. And that’s what I was trying to convey to my fellow congregants at my church.”

Sen. Cruz concluded:

“Well, that’s not what you said. What you said is you describe hatred and righteous indignation directed at conservatives, and I would note that that’s a pattern that also continues.”

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