Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg admittedly
"wasn't 100 percent sober" during last month's State of the Union speech, and in a new interview she blamed an all-night writing session and a glass of wine.
"What I meant was that I had a glass of wine with dinner, and that, on top of having stayed up all night writing something...." Ginsburg told MSNBC's Irin Carmon in an interview that will air Monday night and Tuesday night.
"So you're a bit of a lightweight, as we call it," Carmon replied.
"I thought to myself, 'Don't stay up all night,'" Ginsburg continued. "But then my pen was hot and I couldn't stop what I was doing. And then I said, 'Just drink sparkling water, no wine.' But the dinner was so good and it needed to be complemented."
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Cameras caught Ginsburg with her head down and sleeping during President Barack Obama's annual speech on Jan. 20. She also appeared to be sleeping during Obama's 2010 State of the Union.
Last week, Ginsburg told an audience at George Washington University she was not entirely sober during the most recent State of the Union, which takes place in the House chamber on Capitol Hill.
"The audience for the most part is awake, because they're bobbing up and down, and we sit there, stone-faced, sober judges. But we're not, at least I wasn't, 100 percent sober," said Ginsburg, a liberal judge.
"Because before we went to the State of the Union, Justice Kennedy brought in ... it was an Opus something or other, very fine California wine, and I vowed this year, just sparkling water, stay away from the wine, but in the end, the dinner was so delicious, it needed wine.
"So I got a call when I came home from one of my granddaughters and she said, 'Bubbe, you were sleeping at the State of the Union?'"
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