The second allegation of sexual misconduct leveled against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is farcically flimsy. But that won’t stop Democratic lawmakers from trying to use it to sink his confirmation, claiming there is now a pattern of abusive behavior.
Mark my words: That’s 100 percent how this is going to play out this week. Democrats and their allies in the press are going to cite this extremely dubious new allegation to demand the Senate Judiciary Committee halt everything related to Kavanaugh’s confirmation. They’ll demand that the judge withdraw. It doesn’t matter that there are major, gaping holes in the new story. All that matters is that they can now say there two alleged Kavanaugh victims.
In fact, it has already begun.
“I am writing to request an immediate postponement of any further proceedings related to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement Sunday evening after a second woman came forward to accuse the judge of wrongdoing.
The statement added, “I also ask that the newest allegations of sexual misconduct be referred to the FBI for investigation, and that you join our request for the White House to direct the FBI to investigate the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford as well as these new claims.”
The new claim against Kavanaugh comes from a New Yorker article titled, “Senate Democrats Investigate a New Allegation of Sexual Misconduct, from Brett Kavanaugh’s College Years.”
The article claims that between 1983 and 1984, when Kavanaugh and Deborah Ramirez were classmates at Yale, the then-18-year-old Kavanaugh, “exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in [Ramirez’s] face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.”
That would be a serious offense indeed were it not for the fact that nearly every other detail included in the astoundingly shoddy article disputes that incident happening. For starters, there’s this passage:
The article then states that, “One of the male classmates who Ramirez said egged on Kavanaugh denied any memory of the party. … The other male classmate Ramirez said was involved in the incident commented, ‘I have zero recollection.'”
The report continues, adding that, “two of those male classmates who Ramirez alleged were involved the incident, the wife of a third male student she said was involved, and three other classmates” told the reporters they “never saw or heard about” the alleged incident.
To be fair, the New Yorker managed to find one former anonymous classmate who confirmed Ramirez’s story – though he claims he heard about it because “another student told him about the incident either on the night of the party or in the next day or two.”
Well, that settles it!
Then there are the following paragraphs, which suggest that this entire story is more about keeping Kavanaugh off of the Supreme Court than about uncovering sexual misconduct [emphasis added]:
Ramirez said that she remained silent about the matter and did not fully confront her memories about it for years because she blamed herself for drinking too much. … Reflecting on the incident now, she said she considers Kavanaugh’s male classmates culpable. “They’re accountable for not stopping this,” she said. However, “What Brett did is worse.” She added, “What does it mean, that this person has a role in defining women’s rights in our future?”
Ah, there’s the tell.
This part of the New Yorker’s supposed Kavanaugh “bombshell” is also pretty good: “A third classmate, who Ramirez thought had attended the party, said that she was not present at the incident.”
Lastly, there’s the astonishing moment where the report’s authors admit they have “not confirmed with other eyewitnesses that Kavanaugh was present at the party.”
In summary: Ramirez is “confident” that Kavanaugh exposed himself in college during a drinking game. She wasn’t “confident” of this until she “assessed” her memories 30-plus years later and talked it over with a lawyer. Every person named by Ramirez as being present at the party disputes her story. Even her close friend since college claims she never once mentioned the alleged incident. The only corroborating witness is an anonymous source who claims he heard about the supposed misconduct from another source. The New Yorker never even confirmed that Kavanaugh was at the party.
Other than that, solid work. And you better believe Democrats and other left-wing partisans are going to treat this slipshod report as fact.
To say that the story is weak would be an understatement. It’s a shame, too, considering one of the story’s authors is the otherwise excellent Ronan Farrow. His work covering the #MeToo movement has many fine moments. This Kavanaugh article is definitely not one of them.
