Juan Sotomayor Calls Comments About Sister Sonia 'Insulting, Derogatory, Off-Base'
Juan Sotomayor tells "Good Morning America" that his sister is "tough as nails."
June 10, 2009— -- Sonia Sotomayor's brother says that "angry is just the beginning" of how he feels about criticism levied against the Supreme Court-nominated judge.
"If I could create a Webster's dictionary for the most insulting, derogatory, off-base comments that I've heard about a person, it would be ... I'd have to sit here and go through that," Dr. Juan Sotomayor said in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America." "This is not the person that they're describing."
He strongly defended a sister he calls a "wonderful woman" and "the perfect role model."
"Anyone who knows my sister, she has so many people who love her, adore her; so many people she's friends with; so many people that respect her," he told ABC News' senior national correspondent Claire Shipman.
The nominee's only sibling talked about his relationship with his older sister and his pride in her achievement.
He cannot even look at the display dedicated to his sister at their former high school without tearing up, but said he is "not surprised" that she has risen to the national stage.
"You just don't understand how a brother can feel," said Sotomayor, a physician practicing in Syracuse, N.Y. "It's, you know, you live with someone your whole life and you know it's just great."
Sonia Sotomayor came under fire recently for a remark she made in 2001, when she stated in a speech, "I would hope a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
Juan Sotomayor said that conservative politicians who have called those remarks racist "don't deserve a response. It's not even something that should even be mentioned."
"I'm not going to pretend I know what she was talking about, and I'm sure it was done in a context that was meant totally different than it was taken out of," he said. "And it's not my place to say that. But if she said it, and the way it was said, I'm not sure that even the word [racist] even applies to that statement. It's an overreaction."
But perseverance through adversity, he said, is something his sister knows well.
"My sister was tough as nails," Juan Sotomayor said of their childhood together.
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