Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ripped his Senate confirmation process as a “circus” that has led to smears and threats against his family, and said the Senate effort to investigate sexual assault claims against him has become a “national disgrace.”
“This confirmation process has become a national disgrace,” Kavanaugh said during his opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process. But you have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy,” he continued.
“I swear today under oath before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge,” he said.
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Kavanaugh’s wife was seen crying behind him as he spoke, and Kavanaugh himself choked up as he described his 10-year-old daughter suggesting they pray for Ford.
“We mean no ill will,” he said, his voice breaking.
He choked up several times throughout his statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, including when speaking about the efforts of his friends to rally around him after Ford came forward and when speaking about his family.
But he also spoke angrily about the last 10 days, during which he said his family has been destroyed by the swirling allegations around him.
“In those 10 long days, as was predictable, and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations,” he said.
He called the “two-week effort” a “calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about” Trump and the 2016 presidential election.
Kavanaugh is facing three allegations of sexual misconduct. Earlier Thursday, the committee heard testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting him during a party in Maryland in 1982.
Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegation and the two others lodged against him.
“I’m here today to tell the truth. I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever,” he said.
Kavanaugh repeated his denial of Ford’s allegation and noted that three other people Ford said were in attendance — Leland Keyser, Patrick Smyth, and Mark Judge — denied having any recollection of the party where the alleged sexual assault took place.
“I’ve never done that to her or to anyone,” Kavanaugh said.
Kavanaugh also slammed Democratic senators, including those on the committee, who announced their opposition to his nomination to the Supreme Court the day he was named as President Trump’s pick.
“The behavior of several of the Democratic members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment, but at least it was just a good old-fashioned attempt at Borking,” Kavanaugh told the committee, referencing Robert Bork, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1987.
Kavanaugh noted that the actions of Democratic senators during the course of his nomination process would have an impact on Americans watching it proceed, telling the lawmakers “your words have meaning.”
“Millions of Americans listen to you,” he said.
Kavanaugh derided the process by which Ford’s claim was brought to light, as she detailed her allegation in a letter to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Feinstein referred the matter to the federal authorities just before the Senate Judiciary Committee was set to vote on his nomination. Then, the details of her allegation were leaked to the press.
“Some of you were lying in wait and had it ready,” Kavanaugh said of the allegation. “…You sowed the wind for decades to come. I fear the whole country will reap the whirlwind.”
Kavanaugh also noted that he “welcomed” any type of investigation, be it from the Senate, FBI or Montgomery County Police Department.
Throughout his opening statement to the committee, Kavanaugh addressed specific details in Ford’s allegation and reiterated that he was not present at the gather she described.
He also vowed he would not back down from the nomination process.
“You may defeat me in the final vote, but you’ll never get me to quit,” Kavanaugh said. “Never.”
