Neighbor Who Called Alito’s Wife ‘C-Word’ Speaks Out On CNN: ‘They Had Been Harassing Us So Long’

Justice Samuel Alito’s neighbor, Emily Baden , appeared on CNN’s Outfront Wednesday night and expressed regret for calling his wife the “c-word.” She explained the full context of the confrontation and suggested Alito was “outright lying” about his description of the conflict at hand.

Baden lived near the home of Justice Alito and, as Erin Burnett introduced the segment, said that her guest “is at the center of a neighborhood dispute that involves this upside-down American flag flying at Aalito’s home in Northern Virginia,” and his letter explaining it.

She showed a photo taken in January 2021 of the flag before adding, “Alito, facing accusations of bias now. He’s now refused to recuse himself from January 6th-related cases or Trump-related cases, saying that it was his wife who flew that flag, which, of course, was a banner on January 6th. And he said it was also his wife who flew another flag at their vacation home. A flag also used by insurrectionists on January 6th.”

Burnett noted how Justice Alito “says his wife flew it because she was, quote, ‘greatly distressed by her disputes with you.” She then read from his letter explaining his motivation to put up the flag; he says, and I quote him again, Emily: ‘A house on the street displayed a sign attacking her personally’ — I guess that’s the you are complicit or you know, that you were just talking about, but that you say it was not directed at her — ‘And a man who is living in the house at the time trailed her all the way down the street and berated her in my presence, using foul language, including what I regard as the vilest epithet that can be addressed to a woman,'” which Burnet surmised was the “c-word.”

Baden responded to this quote by saying Alito was either mistaken or “outright lying” because it was not her then-fiance who used that language, but that she said that to Alito’s wife, which she then shared regret. She then explained more details:

BADEN: So, at best, he’s mistaken, but at worst, he’s just outright lying. And, there was a neighbor who even who even witnessed this and witnessed me using that unfortunate term. And what else I said in that interaction is so important, and I hope it’s not getting forgotten in the the discourse around the word in that interaction, she approached us, started screaming at us, used all of our full names, which to me felt like a threat. Because you’re a stranger. We don’t know you. You don’t know us. How do you know our full names? And I just I started yelling, how dare you accuse? They both were there at the same time. So I said, how dare you? You’re on the highest court in the land. You represent the Supreme Court of the United States. You’re behaving this way. You’re yelling at a neighbor. You’re harassing us! How dare you? Shame on you! And I did use the the words, so, if that in any way, you know, distracts from that real message. I do regret using the word because the message is important. It’s like the power imbalance between these people and me. I am, I’m nobody to them. So. And the fact they took umbrage with with my sign is telling enough. It shows like a bias.

BURNETT: It doesn’t mean it it. Well, I mean, and I want to talk about that. But just to be very clear on the timing, he’s saying that that she put up the flag because you said those things. But when we look at there was actually you called 911 on that day, there’s actually a police report about that incident, and that shows that the timing doesn’t work. Right. The flag was up before the flag picture that that was, was taken weeks before. That incident actually happened. Where you call. Where you calling for that word? So what he’s saying here, you’re saying at best mistaken, but it certainly is just it’s categorically by the dates. Not true. Right. She didn’t put the flag up for that reason.

BADEN: Absolutely 100%. And that’s what I want to really drive home to people, is that this happened on February 15th, and we know that because they had been harassing us so long that we were like, we need a paper trail of this. Like, we better call the cops right now. You know, like I said, these are federally protected people. They have security detail. They represent the judicial system. They are the law. And I am just a regular person. And so it’s, you know, yeah, we called the cops that day. It was February 15th. And I think the photo of the flag was on January 17th. Yes. So…

BURNETT: That that the timing doesn’t add up. I do think it’s important, Emily, just to emphasize here that, you know, you’re this is happening between, you, your husband, your, your household and a Supreme Court justice and his wife, and a police report is called. I mean, it’s pretty stunning. Just even think about that. Can I just ask you about your interaction with him? He’s there. He says this happened in his presence. This altercation where you’re saying she was screaming at you with your full name and you responded with the the C word. What did he do? What did he say?

BADEN: He didn’t say anything. And I find that very telling because I feel like in any other situation, somebody would step in if they see somebody, like accosting someone like that and they would say, hey, you know, he’s up a little bit. Let’s let’s go. Let’s walk down the street. He didn’t do anything. He just kept walking and basically disappeared.

BURNETT : Never said a word. I mean, it’s so I want to ask you about one other thing. Around this time, the security detail started doing something that you perceived as threatening. They have a security detail and something specific happened. What was it?

BADEN: Yeah. So they have a security detail that parks in front of their house or, like, in front of the house, across the street from them. We are 4 or 5 houses away. And sometimes that detail would be in front of our house, which, you know, obviously, I can’t say for sure. I don’t know what their motivation was, but we did take it as intimidating, especially when that same car reappeared in front of our house the day the New York Times article came out. And I don’t know what else we’re supposed to get from that.

BURNETT: But you certainly felt you certainly felt threatened. And let me let me just ask you, Emily, you know, you talking before this and I think I don’t want to say anything inappropriate, but I know you were nervous to talk. You were. You thought about this long and hard to decide whether you you thought it was worthwhile to speak out. Why, do you think it is so important that you tell this story?

BADEN: think it is monumentally important. I think our democracy is fragile, and we learned that on January 6th. And, we see it all the time, with people like Trump who say they want to be a dictator. These are serious, serious things. And I just want people, regular people like myself, to understand that we live in a democracy and we don’t have to. We don’t have to watch our democracy become a dictatorship or a fascist, you know, Christian nationalist society. Like, we need to pay attention. We need to stand up, organize and resist.

Watch above via CNN.