Brett Kavanaugh indignantly chastised senators Thursday for mishandling his Supreme Court nomination, saying the delays and additional anonymous allegations have “totally and permanently destroyed” his family’s reputation.
With his face reddening, he accused Democrats of an unprecedented character assassination “frenzy,” highlighting “crazy stuff” accusations of sexual assault, rape, group sex and other improprieties. He warned that it may have permanently ruined the confirmation process for future nominees, since “what goes around comes around.”
“This confirmation process has become a national disgrace,” he said.
Moments later, he broke into tears recalling praying this week with his 10-year-old daughter and her suggesting they should say a prayer for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who just an hour earlier had powerfully accused him of sexual assault 36 years earlier at a high school party.
He said the onslaught of allegations was the natural result of the venom Democrats have expressed toward him, pointing out that one member of the Judiciary Committee he was facing Thursday had called him evil, and another Democratic leader had said his confirmation to the Supreme Court would kill Americans.
“You sowed the wind for decades to come. I fear the whole country will reap the whirlwind,” he said.
Judge Kavanaugh said he’s sailed through six FBI background investigations, several American Bar Association probes and three decades of public service and there’d never been “a whiff” of the allegations that he now faces.
He said he doesn’t question that Ms. Blasey Ford may have been assaulted by someone, but he wasn’t involved.
“I never had any sexual or physical encounter with Dr. Ford,” he said.
He denied remembering meeting her, though he said it was “possible” they had met in their time attending separate high schools in Montgomery County in the early 1980s.
But he said the people she says were at the party with them not only don’t remember her account, but refute it, saying they never were at such a party. One claimed witness, a woman who was a friend of Ms. Blasey Ford’s, has said in a statement made under felony penalty for lying to Congress that she has never met Judge Kavanaugh.
The judge also went through his own calendars he scrupulously kept as a youth, saying he was gone nearly every weekend around the vague time Ms. Blasey Ford has identified when her attack happened.
And he tried to inoculate himself against looming questions about his drinking in high school, admitting he occasionally had more than he should have, but saying there was no comparison between drinking too much and perpetrating a sexually assault.
He also apologized to Renate Dophin, a woman whose name appeared in his yearbook under a number of boys’ names, including his own, calling themselves “the Renate Alumni.”
Press reports called that a “suggestive” label that insinuated multiple sexual relationships. Judge Kavanaugh angrily denounced that, saying it was meant as a way for the boys to show affection for a good friend.
And he said his years of promoting women and the rave reviews he’s gotten from female students and lawyers should speak loudly.
He said if he’s confirmed to the Supreme Court, he’d be the first justice in history to have a group of all woman as law clerks.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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