Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh took to Fox News Monday night for an interview with his wife as he faces a series of allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. He denied the allegations unequivocally and called for a “fair process” that would allow for him to be heard.
However, no one was stopping him from being heard — there is a Senate hearing on Thursday at which he is scheduled to testify, along with one of his accusers. Many observers noted that it was a bizarre choice to take to the right-wing beacon of Fox News ahead of the official testimony, even though his accuser, Christina Blasey Ford, has turned down requests for on-air interviews.
New Yorker reporters Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow, who wrote a story about another of Kavanaugh’s accusers, Deborah Ramirez, also chimed in on Twitter after the interview air to correct some of his misstatements about the incident. Ramirez said that while they were in college, Kavanaugh exposed himself to her and pressed his penis toward her face at a drunken party.
At one point during the interview, Kavanaugh said of the incident, which he denies, “If such a thing had happened, it would have been the talk of the campus.”
Mayer noted that, as she and Farrow reported, at least one witness suggests that the event was talked about on campus in the days afterward.
“And so it was – a classmate who heard about it at the time told me he has thought of it every time he’s heard Kavanaugh’s name – for the last 35 years!” said Mayer.
Farrow noted, too, that another part of Kavanaugh’s interview seemed to be false.
“Worth considering [regarding] Kavanaugh’s assertion that all men & women he knew in college consider this ‘inconceivable’: his roommate at the time is on the record saying Ramirez’s claim is credible and consistent with Kavanaugh’s behavior he witnessed,” he wrote.
The interviewer did, in fact, note that Kavanaugh’s roommate found Ramirez’s allegations credible with. Kavanaugh had no explanation for why his roommate would say this.
Cody Fenwick is a reporter and editor. Follow him on Twitter @codytfenwick.
