Last Night on Late Night

Late night hosts contrast Ketanji Brown Jackson's high approval, 'hissy-fitting' from 3 GOP senators

The third day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson "was another day of grandstanding and speechmaking and hissy-fittting in the Senate," Jimmy Kimmel said on Wednesday's Kimmel Live. "Fifty-eight percent of Americans support Judge Jackson's appointment to the Supreme Court. It is the most support a Jackson has had since Thriller came out." 

Jackson "has said that the fact that she was even nominated shows how far we've come as a country, and so some of the Republican senators on the committee have been hard at work to show how far we haven't," Kimmel said. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in particular have been "desperately trying to get a soundbite that might make it onto Fox News. Unfortunately for them, they made it here instead."

Kimmel showed the deflation of Hawley's attempt to paint Jackson as soft on child pornography, and "of course Cancun Cruz had to get in on the action," but "no Republican has been more hot and bothered than Lindsey Graham," who "picked up right where Hawley left off," only with a weird example, Kimmel said. "How sexually defective do you have to be, listening to Lindsey Graham's voice and watching pornography at the same time?"

It's simple: "Sex offenders deserve the harshest punishment possible — unless they used to host a Fox News show, in which case it's cancel culture!" The Daily Show's Desi Lydic said, FOXsplaining the GOP's argument.

Jackson has "done so well that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin is 'hopeful' her confirmation will receive at least one Republican vote," James Corden said on The Late Late Show. "This is how low the United States government has fallen: We've gone from 'Let's put a man on the moon within the decade' to 'Maybe someday we can get at least one Republican to vote for a qualified woman.'"

"Judge Jackson already has a record approval rating among Americans for a Supreme Court nominee," Jimmy Fallon said on The Tonight Show. "Right now, Biden's like, 'Hey, I nominated you, it's only fair that we split that approval rating.'"

Meanwhile, "Vladimir Putin is still planning to attend the G20 summit with other world leaders in Bali this fall, which explains this year's theme: Awkward," Fallon joked. "Seriously, what is he doing? That's like getting kicked out of high school and then showing up for the reunion."