Democrats have been trying to destroy Clarence Thomas since Anita Hill sat before that Senate committee in 1991.
Thirty-five years later, they are still at it.
What Thomas said this week on the record is something that any Republican in Washington will never forget.
How Democrats Used Harlan Crow to Target Clarence Thomas
In 2023, Democrats launched a coordinated assault on Justice Clarence Thomas – not an ethics investigation, as the late Sen. Lindsey Graham said from day one, but a campaign designed to delegitimize a Supreme Court majority they cannot beat at the ballot box.
ProPublica – a publication bankrolled by liberal billionaires – published a hit piece claiming Thomas had accepted undisclosed luxury travel from Texas businessman Harlan Crow for more than two decades.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin convened a hearing.
Democrats demanded financial records, called for investigations, and called for Thomas to resign.
What they got instead was 100-plus former Thomas law clerks signing an open letter declaring his "integrity is unimpeachable" and his "independence is unshakable."
"This assault on Justice Thomas is well beyond ethics," Graham said at the 2023 hearing. "It is about trying to delegitimize a conservative court that was appointed through the traditional process."
He was right then, and the last three years have proved it.
Clarence Thomas Breaks Silence on Verdict with Ted Cruz
Thomas made his first-ever podcast appearance on Verdict with Ted Cruz – a sit-down tied to Cruz's new biography of the justice, Going Further: The Incomparable Clarence Thomas, built on nine and a half hours of exclusive interviews.
Thomas did not come to relitigate the ethics fight.
He came to say thank you.
"You're one of the people who actually stands up, particularly at times when others seem to wither, and I appreciate it," Thomas told Cruz.
"And more personally, when we, my wife and I were under attack for obvious reasons, you and Sen. Mike Lee and some of the other friends would stand up. Senator [John] Kennedy, etc. So I really appreciate that."
Cruz did not back down from the moment either.
"That is very kind of you, and especially for you to observe that I stand up in the face of criticism and attacks, that is powerful coming from you," Cruz replied, "because you're someone who knows what that's like and has done so in a way that has been world-changing."
Democrats Plan to Pack the Supreme Court if They Win in November
What Democrats did to Thomas was never about a yacht trip to Indonesia.
It was phase one of a longer strategy – and phase two is playing out right now ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has been warning about it for months.
"House Democrats aren't upset about judicial ethics or institutional integrity," Grassley said in June. "They're upset because the Supreme Court is doing its job – applying the Constitution as written rather than applying it as House Democrats wish it was written."
Democrats hammered Thomas on ethics in 2023.
They called the court "rigged" in 2025.
By 2026, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was openly telegraphing plans to pack the Supreme Court if Democrats retake Congress in November.
Not a single House Judiciary Democrat voted for the constitutional amendment that would lock the court at nine justices.
Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona called it "the most partisan Supreme Court in the history of the nation."
The American Enterprise Institute identified this playbook years ago: the assault on Thomas was never a standalone story – it was an organized effort to attack the court's credibility so court-packing could be sold as a rescue mission rather than a hostile takeover.
FDR tried this in 1937.
It was a bad idea then.
It is a worse idea now – because unlike Roosevelt, today's Democrats don't even pretend they're doing it for any reason other than raw power.
Thomas survived the smear.
The court held.
And Ted Cruz – the man Democrats targeted alongside Thomas, the senator who had also received Crow's support and refused to apologize for it – is still standing too.
Sources:
- Fred Lucas, "Justice Clarence Thomas praises Sen. Ted Cruz for defending him against ethics claims," The Hill, August 25, 2026.
- Sen. Chuck Grassley, "Democrats Revive FDR Court-Packing Scheme to Rig the Supreme Court," Senate.gov, June 25, 2026.
- Sen. Chuck Grassley, "Grassley Sounds the Alarm on Democrats' Intentions to Pack the Supreme Court," Senate Judiciary Committee, June 9, 2026.
- John Yoo, "False Leftist Attacks on Justice Thomas Are Part of Pressure Campaign to Undermine Supreme Court," American Enterprise Institute, May 22, 2023.
- Sen. Mitch McConnell, "Democrats Mount Yet Another Attack on the Institution of the Supreme Court," Republican Leader, 2023.
