Zina Bash, a member of Brett Kavanaugh’s legal team who was sitting behind him during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday, September 4, was seen to be making what people on Twitter allege to be a white power hand signal.
Kavanaugh, a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is currently in the process of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
Bash began going viral on social media for “smirking when Democrats speak”, looking “smug”, and making an alleged white power hand gesture.
This is just Zina Bash, one of the writers of Trump's immigration policy, flashing a White Supremacist hand signal. Nothing racist to see here. pic.twitter.com/8OwGYj4kt7
— Machine Pun Kelly (@KellyScaletta) September 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/rubin_kd/status/1037033721235263488
Bash’s husband, U.S. Attorney John Bash III, has since issued a statement denying that Bash had used the “hateful symbol”:
The attacks today on my wife are repulsive. Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves. We weren’t even familiar with the hateful symbol being attributed to her for the random way she rested her hand during a long hearing. Zina is Mexican on her mother’s side and Jewish on her father’s side.
She was born in Mexico. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. We of course have nothing to do with hate groups, which aim to terrorize and demean other people — never have and never would. Some of the Twitter comments have even referred to our baby daughter. I know that there are good folks on both sides of the political divide. I hope that people will clearly condemn this idiotic and sickening accusation.
This is not Bash’s first time going viral. In 2017, Bash — a married mother from McAllen, Texas, who identifies as a Republican — was put on The Hill’s 50 Most Beautiful list.
During her career, Bash clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, served in the Trump Administration as a Special Assistant to the President for “regulatory reform, legal and immigration policy”, and was named as the senior counsel to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. In addition, Bash is a member of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation team.
via TexasAttorneyGeneral.Gov:
Over the years, Bash has held a variety of positions in business, law and government, including as deputy director of policy and communications for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign and senior counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in U.S. Senator John Cornyn’s office. She also practiced law as an appellate attorney at international law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and was formerly executive vice president of operations and business development at Doctors’ Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg.
Bash earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, a law degree from Harvard Law School and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and to Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Bash was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and grew up in McAllen. Her husband, John, currently serves as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, the top prosecutor of federal crimes in the region that includes Austin.
She is currently married to John Bash III, who serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas. The couple met while attending Harvard University.
