Senator calls out history of ‘creepy billionaires meddling in the court’

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island spoke with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Wednesday night, giving a quick history lesson on how someone as corrupt as Samuel Alito could end up on the Supreme Court in the first place. 

"This goes way back. The person responsible for the appointment of Justice Alito was actually Leonard Leo, the operative of the Koch brothers and the creepy billionaires who have been meddling in the court,” Whitehouse explained. 

“You'll remember that [President George W.] Bush originally wanted to appoint his legal counsel, his friend, his fellow Texan, conservative, woman lawyer, to replace Sandra Day O'Connor—Harriet Miers,” he continued. “And he got attacked not by Democrats for that; he got attacked from these far-right billionaires. And he humiliatingly had to withdraw his own legal counsel’s nomination, and Leo produced the agreeable justice to the creepy billionaires: None other than Sam Alito.”