A South Carolina congressman kicked off an election debate Thursday with a joke — which got a few laughs inside the room, but drew condemnation from observers across the state and country who didn’t find it funny at all, the Washington Post reports.
“Did y’all hear this latest late-breaking news on the Kavanaugh hearings?” Rep. Ralph Norman (R) asked the audience at a Kiwanis Club in Rock Hill, S.C., referring to the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out saying she was groped by Abraham Lincoln.”
At 85, Ginsburg is the oldest Supreme Court justice and its preeminent liberal dissenter.
The comment from Norman, who is running for reelection in November, comes at the height of the controversy surrounding sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, who has denied the accusations.
