The full, controversial transcript of the Clarence Thomas interview on “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.”
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Clarence Thomas was interviewed on The Whole Story on Sunday night by CNN host Anderson Cooper. The appearance was part of a promotional tour for Thomas’s recent memoir, entitled “Get It While You Can.”
Cooper interviewed Justice Thomas from the CNN newsroom in New York City; with him was his wife Jennifer (Ginni) Thomas, an outspoken conservative activist. Following is a transcript of that interview:
Anderson Cooper:
Justice Clarence Thomas first rose to prominence in 1979 with his appointment as Assistant Attorney General for Missouri, under then Attorney General John Danforth who, upon gaining a seat in the U.S. Senate, subsequently sponsored Thomas’s appointment to the United States Supreme Court. Justice Thomas then underwent a controversial nominating process, involving allegations by former aid Anita Hill that Thomas had sexually harassed her. He has been no stranger to controversy for the past three decades, often siding with other Republican-appointed justices and espousing support for markedly conservative causes. Recently, allegations have been made that Justice Thomas accepted inappropriate gifts in travel, lodging, and hospitality from billionaire megadonor Harlon Crow, yet failed to report the gifts on the SCOTUS disclosure forms. Welcome, Justice and Mrs. Thomas.
Thomas:
Thank you, white boy.
Cooper:
Justice Thomas, how have you been dealing with the furor over the allegations surrounding the largesse afforded you and Mrs. Thomas by billionaire Harlon Crow.
Thomas:
I jus’ a small-town lawyer from Pin Point, Georgia. But, I know a high-tech lynching when I seen it! Those democrats got their nerve. Jus’ look what Hunter Biden be doin’.
Cooper:
So, you think you’ve been unfairly targeted for accepting gifts from Republican megadonors?
Thomas:
Lookit what the judicial community got from the tobacco settlement. Hello, the attorneys in Texas, Mississippi, and Florida alone got $8.2B.
Cooper:
That’s a lot of money.
Thomas (nodding):
That’s a lot of money.
Ginni Thomas:
Shit, the half mil’ I got from the Heritage Foundation won’t keep Clarence in me in cigarette money!
Cooper:
Justice Thomas, you originally had aspirations for the priesthood. What dissuaded you?
Thomas:
You can’t make no jack workin’ the collar. Man, you gots to be the damn Pope in order to get access to that $73B they said to have. An’ you KNOW they ain’t gonna let no brother into the Vatican.
Ginni:
Amen!
Cooper:
Justice Thomas, you preceded a long line of controversial officials in the Missouri Attorney General’s office, including now Senators Doug Hawley and Eric Schmidt and present Attorney General Bailey. Do you feel like they’re following in your footsteps?
Thomas:
Certainly. Look, Hawley, he writin’ about manliness and stuff, and Schmidt and Bailey, they be passin’ laws against transgenderism, it all good.
Cooper:
You held positions with the Department of Education and with the EEOC before you became a federal judge in 1989, but you didn’t really come to prominence until your confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court in 1991, at which time Anita Hill came forward and leveled accusations of sexual harassment at you.
Thomas:
That bitch, Anita…
Ginni:
She a skank!
Cooper:
Please tell our “Whole Story” audience, have you had any contact with Anita Hill since your hearings 32 years ago?
Thomas:
Certainly. She accompanied Ginni and me on our trip to Indonesia.
Cooper:
Really? How did that go?
Thomas:
Jus’ fine. She and Steadman — he cheatin’ on Oprah — went along for the ride. We had a helluva time!
Cooper:
During the Vietnam War, while at Holy Cross, you received several deferments from service in the military. And upon graduation, you were examined and declared medically unfit to serve. What was the reason that you were so classified?
Thomas:
Shin splints.
Cooper:
Shin splints?
Thomas:
Well, it’s better than bone spurs. I guess that’s why I never got to be president! (Thomas and Ginni laugh uproariously).
Cooper:
When she appeared before the Senate, Anita Hill stated that you
compared yourself to Long Dong Silver. Do you recall that?
Thomas:
I do.
Ginni:
Clarence could eat Long Dong Silver’s lunch any day!
Cooper:
Hill also claimed that you said that you found a pubic hair on a can of Coca-Cola.
Thomas:
That a lie! I always drink Diet Squirt.
Ginni:
That right. Clarence always good for a good squirt, but he ain’t one! (Again the couple laugh uproariously).
Cooper:
You finally came to the Court in 1991, with the death of Thurgood Marshall. After a fiercely contested nominating process, you secured approval to the Court by a vote of just 52 to 48.
Thomas:
I look at it this way, Anderson; it could have been worse. I might have been running for Speaker of the House! (The Justice and Ginni smirk).
Cooper:
You’ve been involved in some very controversial court decisions during your tenure; for example, you dissented in the decision to outlaw bump stocks, whereby semi-automatic firearms are converted to fully-automatic weapons. You stated in your dissent that your vote was “consistent with a nation’s historical tradition of dealing with firearms legislation.”
Thomas:
Thas’ right, Andy. I be an originalist: there ain’t nothin’ in the Constitution about bump stocks.
Cooper:
Nor is there anything in the Constitution about an air force. That doesn’t mean you can dismiss concerns out of hand. How does the Court address issues concerning societal elements which didn’t exist in the 18th century?
Thomas: (with big smile):
We jus’ play it be ear.
Cooper:
You have been remarkably silent during oral arguments during your time on the Court. Prior to COVID, you spoke in precisely 32 of the preceding 2,400 oral arguments. How do you account for that?
Thomas:
I be a man of few words.
Cooper:
You have held a number of other controversial positions over the years. You ruled with Citizens United that business entities should be considered as an individual with respect to campaign contributions. (Thomas nods). And then you sided with the position that 13-year old girls could be subject to strip searches by school personnel.
Thomas:
I took special counsel in that instance. Donald Trump had just returned from the Miss Teen U.S.A. pageant, and he tell me, ‘Clarence, nothin be so hot as a teenage girl in her skivvies.’ An’ you know, he right.
Cooper:
You voted that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t protect citizens against discrimination based on sexual identity or sexual orientation. Yet, you wrote in a Texas case that law enforcement authorities had no business in enforcing a law against sodomy. Why did you so decide? (At this, both Thomas and Ginni fidget uneasily in their chairs).
Thomas:
Move on, Anderson.
Cooper:
In 2004 your friend businessman Harlan Crow gifted you a bible said to be worth $19,000, yet you never claimed it on your disclosure form.
Thomas:
That be persecution agin’ me for my religious freedom. Ever’ man gots the right to pursue worshippin’ the faith of their choice. This jus’ a high-tech crucifixion. An’ I ain’t got nothing more to say about it.
Cooper:
It has been conjectured, Justice Thomas, that your island hopping in Indonesia cost upwards of $245,000 a week. Please tell our “Whole Story” audience how do you reconcile that with SCOTUS’s responsibility to avoid even the appearance in impropriety or undue influence.
Thomas:
This jus’ a high-tech walkin’-the-plank and keelhaulin’.
Cooper:
But, what do you say to your critics?
Thomas:
They can like it or they can lump it.
Cooper:
In 2016, Moira Smith, an executive with a natural gas company, came forward and claimed that you squeezed her buttocks at a party in 1999. What do you say to that?
Thomas:
If’n she been coming forward at the time, then her ass wouldn’t ‘a been available for me to squeeze, would it? An’ as the Donald would say, she not my type.
Cooper:
In the Dobbs decision almost one year ago, you noted that the right to privacy was not contained in the Constitution and that the Court should “reconsider’ the concept, which paved the way for decisions on contraception, same-sex relationships and same sex marriage. How do you feel about these issues, going forward?
Thomas:
Anderson, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. That all I got to say ’bout it!
Cooper:
Do you bear some personal animus toward the LGBTQ community?”
Thomas:
It ain’t personal, Anderson. I mean, queers got rights. You seem like a decent enough feller. They can eat and drink and pee wherever anyone else do, but…
Cooper:
But what?
Thomas:
They lay a han’ on me or mine, I take they head off! (Thomas cracks his knuckles loudly, while Ginni squirms uncomfortably).
Cooper:
Justice Thomas, what do you see as the far-reaching decisions the Court will have to make in the next term?
Thomas:
There ain’t so much. (Yawns).
Cooper:
But, what about minority voting rights and gerrymandering and campaign spending?
Thomas:
Minorities, just like queers, got rights. Right now, throughout the South, in most of the districts you got minorities voting, sort of. And as far as gerrymanders is concerned, we got to let the state legislatures alone — think ‘enumerated powers’ — an we should maintain states’ rights in all Republican-majority voting districts. Like I was tellin’ my adopted son, Sen. Ted Cruz, we gots to stay together…
At this point in the broadcast, there was an electronic malfunction, and all sound and video were lost.
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