Kavanaugh Lied to the Judiciary Committee—Repeatedly
Kavanaugh made several false or widely contradicted statements about his use of alcohol. This is significant because Judge has admitted to
drunken blackouts, which raises the possibility that Judge and Kavanaugh
don’t remember what they did to Ford. During the hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked about Kavanaugh’s participation in a night of drunken revelry at Yale Law School. Kavanaugh assured Blumenthal, “I know exactly what happened the whole night.” Later,
Booker asked Kavanaugh whether he had “never had gaps in memories, never had any losses whatsoever, never had foggy recollection about what happened” while drinking. Kavanaugh affirmed that he had never experienced such symptoms: “That’s what I said.” These statements contradict reports from
several people who
knew Kavanaugh. Liz Swisher, a friend from Yale, says she saw Kavanaugh drink a lot, stumble, and slur his words. “
It’s not credible for him to say that he has had no memory lapses in the nights that he drank to excess,” she told the Washington Post.
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Ford says Kavanaugh drunkenly
pinned her down at a teen party, groped her, and tried to pull off her clothes. Ramirez says Kavanaugh
stood next to her and dropped his pants when they were drinking with classmates at Yale. Is it possible that Kavanaugh did these things, even if he doesn’t remember them? Is there evidence that makes that scenario particularly plausible in his case? Are there steps that the Senate can and should take to investigate that possibility? The answer to all three questions is yes.
Let’s start with the culture of drinking and partying among Kavanaugh’s high school friends. Numerous peers and classmates have described a routine of “
fake IDs,” “unchaperoned parties,” “
binge drinking,” “flocking to the house of whoever’s parents were out of town to drink six-packs,” and “
Georgetown Prep students engaging in sexual misconduct.” One of Kavanaugh’s teachers says, “
The drinking was unbelievable.” A classmate of Ford says, “The boys were pretty brutal.
They would do what they could to get you drunk, and do whatever they would try to do to you.”
Other students have
reported the same.
There was also a culture of booze among Kavanaugh’s college friends. Classmates say “
heavy drinking was routine,” and “alcohol-fuelled parties” often led to gross sexual behavior. Kavanaugh’s fraternity loved to party and is remembered for “
reviving a beer-drinking competition that college officials had banned from campus.” A photo taken during his frat years shows pledges marching with a flag made of
bras and women’s underwear.
Kavanaugh was part of this culture. His friend Mark Judge, who is accused of collaborating in the alleged assault on Ford, has written books and articles that detail extensive drinking in their social circle. In his writings, Judge calls this group “
Alcoholics Unanimous.” He describes their school, Georgetown Prep, as “
swimming in alcohol.” He depicts house parties like the one at which Ford says she was assaulted. According to Judge, these were informal, unsupervised gatherings at which boys and girls from single-sex schools could party together whenever “
someone’s parents were going away.” For boys, the goal was sex. Judge
writes: “Most of the time everyone, including the girls, was drunk. If you could breathe and walk at the same time, you could hook up with someone.”
Judge specifically describes incidents in which he “blacked out” and later learned that he had done things he didn’t recall. In one case, he woke up “
terrified of what I could have done during the blackout.” He frets, “I could have done anything and not know it—I could have murdered somebody.” In another case, a friend informed him that during an episode of which Judge had no memory, Judge had “tried to make it with one of the bridesmaids.” Judge pleaded with his friend: “Please tell me I didn’t hurt her.” Judge’s ex-girlfriend says he once told her how he and other boys
used a drunk woman for sex. Judge denies that he did this. But in one of his books, he
confesses that when he drank, “It was as though there was a different version of myself—Mr. Hyde—who had taken over my body, and I couldn’t stop him.”
Judge’s confessions about what he did while drunk—or believed he was capable of doing while drunk—are consistent with Ford’s account of what Judge and Kavanaugh did to her. Judge says he doesn’t remember any of it. Of course he doesn’t. That’s his pattern.
Kavanaugh’s Drinking Needs Investigating
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When it came to alcohol consumption, his answers became vague and his frustration showed.
In some instances, when faced with questions related to drinking too much, many noticed that Kavanaugh appeared “defensive” and “evasive,” not providing direct answers or throwing questions back at the senators who asked them.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), for example, asked whether his drinking ever caused him to be unable to remember events, and he became insolent.
“You’re asking about blackout. I don’t know, have you?” he said.