Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a Fox News interview that she believes Trump’s appeals to the Supreme Court will be successful, implying that Justice Brett Kavanaugh — and perhaps others who Trump nominated for the bench — understand that they are indebted to him.
“Mob talk,” is how the media outlet MeidasTouch described Habba’s statements. “Saying the quiet part out loud,” is how another X user described Habba’s description of Kavanaugh’s expected fidelity to Trump, rather than his fidelity to the law.
“I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court,” Habba says in the video below. “I have faith in them. You know, people like Kavanaugh, who the President fought for, who the President went through hell to get into place. He’ll step up. Those people will step up.”
Habba then offered a cavaet to her assertion that Kavanaugh owes Trump, saying she has faith “not because they’re pro-Trump, but because they’re pro law.”
Mob talk https://t.co/b5Dm9a2DCr
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) January 5, 2024
There has been a lot of chatter recently about former President Donald Trump saying, as the phrase goes, “the quiet part out loud” with Trump inviting this commentary with statements that seem to corroborate accusations made by his opponents. One example of note is Trump — who has been accused of racist tendencies — saying out loud on the campaign trail that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States, using a phrase with hateful origins.
The idea behind saying the quiet part out loud is that some beliefs, though they are very obviously held in private, are considered inappropriate to admit in public — where there is supposed to be a consensus about democratic necessities like the rule of law eclipsing favoritism. “Quid pro quo, anyone?” asks one commenter.
The name checking of Kavanaugh will increase the already high wattage of the spotlight on the conservative SCOTUS justices, especially those Trump appointed. If Habba’s comment is meant as a reminder of indebtedness, and if indeed there is some indebtedness, the tactic still faces some problems because it amplifies the optics.
Habba: We're worried that Trump's appointees will rule against him because of optics.
— Chris Doll (@ChristopherDoll) January 5, 2024
Also Habba: Brett and Co should remember who appointed them and rule accordingly.
