The White House on Tuesday defended U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after he declined to shake the hand of Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Parkland, Fla., shooting in February, and said security quickly intervened to keep Kavanaugh away from people at his confirmation hearing.
“As Judge Kavanaugh left for his lunch break, an unidentified individual approached him,” tweeted White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah. “Before the Judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened.”
As Judge Kavanaugh left for his lunch break, an unidentified individual approached him. Before the Judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened. https://t.co/ylOhtA1s6G
— Raj Shah (@RajShah45) September 4, 2018
Fred Guttenberg described his attempt to engage the federal appeals court judge during a pause in Tuesday’s proceedings presided over by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended,” Guttenberg tweeted. “Put out my hand to introduce myself as Jaime Guttenberg’s dad. He pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence.”
Images and videos of the moment between the pair were widely shared on social media.
Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jamie Guttenberg who was killed in the shooting in Parkland, Fla., left, tries to shake hands with @realDonaldTrump‘s Supreme Court nom., Brett Kavanaugh, right, during a lunch break. Kavanaugh did not shake his hand. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) @ap pic.twitter.com/smcCGuLT6X
— Andrew Harnik (@andyharnik) September 4, 2018
Wow, here’s Kavanaugh giving @fred_guttenberg a contemptuous look before turning his back on him. Guttenberg’s daughter was killed in the Parkland gun massacre pic.twitter.com/Fz9e0gwytv
— Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) September 4, 2018
NEW VIDEO of hearing room clearly shows security intervened when Judge #Kavanaugh was approached. pic.twitter.com/ZGRRCcWroW
— Raj Shah (@RajShah45) September 4, 2018
Everytown for Gun Safety, a pro-gun control nonprofit organization, claimed Kavanaugh’s judicial record demonstrates a “dangerous” interpretation of the Second Amendment.
“Judge Kavanaugh’s extreme outlier approach to the Second Amendment would put in jeopardy the full range of gun safety laws — including assault weapons and large — capacity magazine prohibitions, minimum age requirements, safe storage requirements and other common-sense gun safety laws,” the group states on its website.
Kavanaugh defended the right to bear arms in a dissent to a 2011 challenge to a D.C. law that barred possession of most semi-automatic rifles and required registration of all firearms.
In his dissent, Kavanaugh wrote that he believed the ban and registration requirement were unconstitutional and, citing the 2008 Supreme Court case Heller v. District of Columbia, wrote that “handguns — the vast majority of which today are semi-automatic — are constitutionally protected.”
Jamie Guttenberg was one of 17 people slain by a lone gunman on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
