AOC says there's an easy solution if Clarence Thomas wants a life of luxury: 'Resign from the court'
Drew Angerer/Getty Images, left, and Alex Wong/Getty Images
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed in on Justice Clarence Thomas' undisclosed luxury trips.
- Public servants who want to live a luxury lifestyle "can resign from the court," she said.
- Thomas reportedly took undisclosed vacations with a GOP megadonor over the past 20 years.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed in on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' undisclosed luxury trips with a billionaire benefactor, saying public servants who want to live that lifestyle can "resign."
Thomas took vacations with billionaire GOP megadonor Harlan Crow over the past 20 years, traveling on his private jet and superyacht, ProPublica reported. Thomas said he was told it wasn't necessary to publicly report the $500,000 in trips.
Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said on the Daily Show that justices shouldn't be "receiving money from people."
"This is why we pay salaries to public servants. And if they want to live that kind of lifestyle, then they can resign from the court. They can retire," she said to applause.
Host Jordan Klepper asked who she thought would write the opinion if conflicting rulings on the abortion pill mifepristone make it to the Supreme Court. "Is it going to be the guy who cried over beer or is it going to be the buddy with Nazi memorabilia guy?" he asked, a reference to Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Thomas, whose friend Crow collects Nazi memorabilia.
Ocasio-Cortez said she hopes it doesn't get to that point. "But we also have to face the reality that the Supreme Court has chosen to give up huge swaths of their own legitimacy," she said, name-checking Chief Justice John Roberts, Thomas, Kavanaugh, and the Republican Party.
"In them giving up trying to take seriously the legitimacy, the standards, the integrity of the court, they have given up a very large degree of their authority," she said.