U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh took a strong stance when asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee if he personally believed that Nazis, Nazi sympathizers, or white nationalists were “fine people.”
“There is no place in American public life for vile ideologies of hate,” Kavanaugh wrote in response to written questions submitted by members of the panel supplementing oral testimony he gave last week. His answers were released late Wednesday.
Kavanaugh was posed the question after Trump in August 2017 initially refused to condemn by name the neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups behind the Charlottesville, Va., rally. The demonstrations became deadly when James Fields drove a car into a group of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Trump said there were “fine people” on both sides of the melee.
Trump eventually called the groups “repugnant,” but he appeared to walked back those comments during an impromptu press conference the following day.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Kavanaugh’s candidacy Thursday ahead of his nomination being considered on the Senate floor. If successful, Kavanaugh will become Trump’s second appointee to the highest court in the country.
[Also read: Brett Kavanaugh says he didn’t recognize Parkland shooting victim’s father at hearing]
