stuff. Gangs, illegitimate children, fights on boats in Rhode Island. All nonsense reported breathlessly and often uncritically by the media. This has destroyed my family and my good name—a good name built up through decades of very hard work and public service at the highest levels of the American government. This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups. This is a circus.
He lamented the effect the confirmation process would have on others who might seek to serve the country. But though he feared for the future, he would not be intimidated into withdrawing from the confirmation process. “You’ve tried hard. You’ve given it your all. No one can question your effort, but your coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy my good name and destroy my family will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. You may defeat me in the final vote, but you will never get me to quit. Never.”
Then he turned to the allegations against him. He said he had never sexually assaulted anyone, emphasizing how seriously he took sexual assault. He reminded the senators that due process requires hearing from those who make allegations and from those who are the subject of allegations.
He repeated something he had said in the East Room at the announcement of his nomination—that his mother’s trademark line was, “Use your common sense. What rings true, what rings false?” A good reminder, he said, for the decision before the senators. The last-minute accusations, flung at him by a campaign that had promised to do everything in its power to stop his nomination, was utterly inconsistent with the reputation he had built over decades and did not ring true.
Christine Blasey may have been sexually assaulted, he said, but not by him, adding that he intended no ill will to her or her family. “The other night Ashley and my daughter Liza said their prayers, and little Liza—all of ten years old—said to Ashley, ‘We should pray for the woman.’ That’s a lot of wisdom from a ten-year-old. We mean no ill will,” he said, choking up. The hearing room was full of people crying. Kavanaugh’s parents were there to support him and could barely maintain their composure. Watching their anguish over their only son’s ordeal was brutal for the other members of Kavanaugh’s team.
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