Sure enough, after Sen. Ted Cruz's used yesterday's hearings as a despicable and dishonest theater to paint SCOTUS nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Black racist pedo-lover, he got a friendly welcome from Sean Hannity to spread the message.

Cruz’s performance was little more than an audition for Fox News primetime

In case you missed Cruz’s part of the larger GOP smear campaign, Aaron Rupar has a good summary:

Ted Cruz tried to Republican-splain the teachings of MLK to her, claiming dubiously that King would’ve been an opponent of critical race theory; he also asked her if she agrees that “babies are racist,” citing the contents of an antiracist book in the library of a school on whose board she sits as proof of her agenda. He said “critical race theory” many, many times.

…

Both Cruz and Josh Hawley spent a lot of time grilling Jackson about widely debunked allegations she’d given lenient sentences to child porn offenders, with Hawley going as far as to graphically describe the details of pornographic images. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) immediately refuted him by using her questioning time to list Republican-nominated judges who also, for one reason or another, haven’t thrown the book at child porn offenders. (Cory Booker later said he was “a little bit insulted” by Republicans harping on the child porn stuff, noting that victim advocacy groups are among Jackson’s staunchest supporters.)

There was nothing about that Hannity didn’t seem to love.

Hannity promoted Cruz’s racist, irrelevant attacks as legit, true and important – and asked for more

Let me pause to say that before Tucker Carlson seized the rank of Fox’s most prominent racist and America hater, Hannity labored for years in the trenches without the recognition he deserved, in my opinion.

So, it was no surprise that Hannity wanted Cruz on his show. After all, Hannity defended the senator after he deserted his freezing, dying constituents for a luxury vacation in Cancun and then lied about it.

Hannity played a clip from Cruz’s attack that was laughingly prefaced with, “unlike Democrats, Republicans stay focused on Judge Jackson's record, her judicial philosophy and exposed the Democratic double standards when it comes to Republican nominees. That dates back decades.”

(ViDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): So, Judge Jackson, all of us will agree that that no one should be discriminated against because of race. When you just testified a minute ago that you didn't know if critical race theory was taught in K through 12, I will confess, I find that statement a little hard to reconcile with the public record.

JACKSON: I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist or though they are not valued or though they are less than, that they are victims, that they are oppressors. I don't believe in any of that.

CRUZ: And I'll confess, Judge Jackson, as -- look, as I listen to your testimony I believe you are someone who is compassionate. I believe you care for children, obviously your children and other children. But I also see a record of activism and advocacy as it concerns sexual predators that stems back decades and that is concerning.

Hannity ignored the debunking of those smears from people like Fox contributor, former prosecutor and conservative Andrew McCarthy. Instead, Hannity deceitfully suggested that Cruz was on to something important that needed further exposure. Cruz, of course, was all in.

HANNITY: Senator, I want to start with this. She wrote once that every judge has a personal hidden agenda. And when I heard that, I'm thinking -- what is -- what is her -- what is her hidden agenda? We ever get an answer on that?

CRUZ: Well, no, and when it came to critical race theory, she didn't want to answer the question. She claimed she didn't really know what it was or what it contained. Of course, she had previously given a speech at a law school where she said that sentencing, what judges do, involves critical race theory.

And I got to say there was a lot of discussion about her record when it concerns sexual offenders and in particular sexual predators targeted at kids. As you just played, I asked her about what she wrote in law school that suggested that the laws that many states have passed providing for civil commitment for violent sexual predators, that those laws are unconstitutional.

…

And I got to say when she was asked about it, she couldn't give a good explanation about why repeatedly she gave light sentences, lenient sentences to sex offenders when the law didn't support that.

HANNITY: I watched the exchange, I couldn't believe it myself, Senator.

Not surprising to any Hannity watcher, he was more interested in promoting the racism smear over the QAnon dog whistle. But Cruz was more interested in the QAnon smear.

HANNITY: I want to go back to critical race theory. More specifically, I believe the speech you were referring to was at Michigan's law school, and she had praised the 1619 Project which argues fundamentally that the U.S. is a racist country and in that speech -- correct me if my wrong -- did she not make clear that judges that she believes should consider CRT in sentencing?

CRUZ: That's explicitly what she said is that sentencing -- she was talking about how interesting sentencing is and she says it involves lots of things, including critical race theory. And when I asked her about it, she initially contended she had no idea what it was and that it had nothing to do with her job.

And then I confronted her with her own quote saying that sentencing involves critical race theory, and she didn't have an answer to that and it -- look, it's a little bit of the game unfortunately that we've seen from Biden judicial nominees where they claim to have no philosophy, they claim not to know anything about whatever they believe, and then they get on the bench and they vote hard, hard left.

And I think there's real reasons to have concerns that if Judge Jackson becomes Justice Jackson, that that we will see a vote on the far left, very possibly the furthest left of any of the nine justices, particularly on criminal justice issues. It's an odd thing but for 30 years, she has been advocating lighter sentences, more lenient treatment for sexual offenders, both sexual offenders who target kids and just in general sex offenders.

And I got to say that -- that doesn't make any sense to me and I think to most Americans.

Hannity then moved on to “the issue of court packing,” saying accusingly that “She refuses to answer that question.” But even Cruz acknowledged “there’s not a constitutional barrier to packing the court” and that Congress has the authority to do so. In other words, it’s an issue that has nothing to do with Judge Jackson’s jurisprudence, her record or any part of a role as a Supreme Court justice.

You can see how the GOP and the Murdochs’ Fox News work in tandem, in this case to smear and potentially endanger (remember Pizzagate?) a well-qualified, mainstream Supreme Court nominee who happens to be Black, below, from the March 22, 2022 Hannity, in a video Fox calls, “Ted Cruz discusses Ketanji Brown Jackson's 'disturbing' rulings.”