Republicans turn Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing into a political circus

Solemn proceedings of confirmation hearing took a nosedive into farce with bizarre moments in Jackson's epic inquisition

At 2.54pm on the second day of Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings that will determine whether she takes a seat on the US supreme court, the solemn proceedings took a nosedive into farce.

Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, turned theatrically to an outsized blow-up of a children's book, Antiracist Baby by Ibram X Kendi. Pointing to a cartoon from its pages of an infant in diapers taking their first walk, he asked Jackson: Do you agree with this book... that babies are racist?"