Photo: Chuck Kennedy for Axios
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday defended Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' decision to not recuse himself despite wife Ginni Thomas' activism to overturn the 2020 election.
Driving the news: "I have complete confidence in Justice Thomas ... I have total confidence in his judgment, about when he should sit," McConnell told Axios' Jonathan Swan.
- "Justice Thomas has had a 30-year distinguished career on the Supreme Court and nobody's questioned his standards his ethics," McConnell said, adding that "spouses are not members of Congress."
- "The Supreme Court itself decides when it's appropriate to recuse. I have total confidence, not only in Justice Thomas but the other Supreme Court justices to make the decision themselves as to when they should recuse from a case."
State of play: McConnell last month condemned calls by some Democrats for Thomas to recuse himself amid revelations about his wife's activism, calling it a "new and inappropriate pressure campaign."
Go deeper: McConnell pressed on contradiction with Trump and moral red lines