He cited the six FBI background investigations he had undergone in the previous twenty-six years and cited the positions of responsibility he had held that put him under public scrutiny. He noted that he and other members of Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater independent prosecutor’s office were researched “from head to toe, from birth through the present day,” and that while others had been exposed as having engaged in sexual wrongdoing, nothing was alleged about him. He reminded senators that he had served three years in the West Wing and traveled around the world with the president, having been thoroughly vetted. He had sat through two confirmation hearings, in 2004 and 2006, before being confirmed to the second-most important court in the country.
“Throughout my fifty-three years and seven months on this earth until last week, no one ever accused me of any kind of sexual misconduct. No one ever. A lifetime,” he said.
More specifically, he said, he had never had any sexual or physical encounter of any kind with Ford and never attended a gathering like the one she described. He said that if he socialized with girls, they tended to be at the Catholic schools, not Holton-Arms. All of the persons named as witnesses said they did not recall anything that matched Ford’s account.
“Dr. Ford’s allegation is not merely uncorroborated, it is refuted by the very people she says were there, including by a longtime friend of hers,” he said, noting that none of the witnesses lived near Columbia Country Club.
Then he pointed to his calendars. He explained why he kept them, choking up as he talked about his father keeping detailed calendars. Ashley, crying, kept supportive eyes on Brett from behind. Noting that while the calendars had “some goofy parts, some embarrassing parts,” they documented the summer of 1982 well. He said the only weekend nights he was in Maryland and not grounded were Friday, June 4, and Saturday, August 7. He noted how he listed the names of people with whom he attended parties. His calendars were full of sports camps, summer trips, and hanging out with friends. He talked about his summer business of cutting lawns.
“And as my calendars show, I was very precise,” said Kavanaugh, noting that they included the precise list of whom he gathered with. They weren’t dispositive on their own, he acknowledged, “but they are another piece of evidence in the mix for you to consider.”
Finally, he noted that the charges were inconsistent with his record and character from youth to the present day. He referred to his many women friends. “I remember talking almost every night it seemed to my friends Amy or Julie or Kristin or Karen or Suzanne or Maura or Meghan or Nikki, the list goes on. Friends for a lifetime built on a foundation of talking through school and life starting at age fourteen. Several of those great women are in the seats right behind me today,” he said.
He acknowledged that he drank beer in high school, noting that the drinking age in Maryland was then eighteen. And he acknowledged that his yearbook was “a disaster.” Students had taken their cues from popular movies of the time, such as Animal House, Caddyshack, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He said what he saw in his yearbook made him cringe, particularly the reference to Renate.
“One of our good female friends who we would admire and went to dances with had her name used on the yearbook page with the term ‘alumnus.’ That yearbook reference was clumsily intended to show affection and that she was one of us, but in this circus, the media’s interpreted the term as related to sex. It was not related to sex,” he said. He apologized to her and said that one thing he wanted to make sure of in the future was his friendship with her. “She was and is a great person,” he said.
He also went through the women who had sent letters on his behalf. After quoting three text messages he had received in the past two days from female college friends, he recalled that in his opening statement at the first hearing, he had said, “Cherish your friends, look out for your friend, lift up your friends, love your friends. I felt that love more over the last two weeks than I ever have in my life. I thank all my friends. I love all my friends.”
Turning to his record with women in the professional sphere, Kavanaugh said, “Throughout my life, I’ve devoted huge efforts to encouraging and promoting the careers of women. I will put my record up against anyone’s, male or female.” Then he turned closer to home: “I love coaching more than anything I’ve ever done in my whole life, but thanks to what some of you on this side of the committee have unleashed, I may never be able to coach again.”
Finally, he thanked God for Ashley and his family and concluded:
We live in a country devoted to due process and the rule of law. That means taking allegations seriously, but if the mere allegation, the mere assertion of an allegation, a refuted allegation from thirty-six years ago, is enough to destroy a person’s life and career, we will have abandoned the basic principles of fairness and due process that define our legal system and our country. I ask you to judge me by the standard that you would want applied to your father, your husband, your brother, or your son. My family and I intend no ill will toward Dr. Ford or her family. But I swear today under oath before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge.
After his emotionally powerful opening statement, Kavanaugh first answered some perfunctory questions from Rachel Mitchell about how he knew the people whom Ford had identified as witnesses. But soon enough he had to respond to pointed questions from his accusers on the committee. When Senator Feinstein asked him why he didn’t want the FBI to investigate the accusations against him by Ford, Ramirez, and Swetnick, Kavanaugh reminded her forcefully that he had wanted a hearing immediately, instead of waiting ten days while allegations were “printed and run breathlessly by cable news.”
She said the committee needed an outside authority to interview witnesses. Kavanaugh replied that it wasn’t for him to tell her how to do her job, but that the committee had the same authority to interview witnesses as the FBI, and the FBI would simply turn over its interviews without offering a conclusion. Feinstein, boldly, then brought up Avenatti’s rape allegations, saying she understood Kavanaugh was denying them. “That is emphatically what I’m saying. Emphatically,” he said, calling the gang rape claim a joke and a farce. “Would you like to say more about it?” Feinstein asked. “No,” he responded immediately, eliciting laughter from the room. Some of Feinstein’s colleagues, including some whose votes were in play, were surprised and appalled that she gave the outlandish allegations credence.
Mitchell then asked him some more factual questions about his drinking, sexual behavior, and his calendars. Just three questioners in, the team from the White House counsel’s office realized that Kavanaugh needed time for his emotions to cool.
Everything had changed in the previous hour. And everyone involved in the confirmation effort, whether at the White House or on the Hill, knew it. All of them were surprised at the tearful reaction they had to his emotional testimony.
After so many years of seeing conservatives give in, Kavanaugh’s supporters were moved by his bold defense of his life, his reputation, and the of rule of law. The display of courage and righteous indignation moved nearly everyone to tears. Men and women in the war room, in the hearing room, and at the White House were crying. And social media reflected the dismay of people throughout the country at the climate of mob justice that could tear down their honorable husbands and sons. Kavanaugh was fighting not only for himself but for everybody who had been unfairly attacked.