Brett Kavanaugh Defends ‘Emotional’ Testimony In ‘WSJ’ Op-Ed
President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Brett Kavanaugh defended his “emotional” testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal today.
In his 500-word WSJ column, Kavanaugh touches on his background, biography, high school, and college years; writes about his family — mother Martha, father Ed, wife Ashley, daughters Margaret and Liza — and makes the case that he has a “long record of advancing and promoting women,” as a judge and as a coach of girls’ basketball teams.
Writing about Justice Anthony Kennedy, Kavanaugh argues that a Supreme Court judge must be independent and free from partisanship, bias, and political influences. Over the past 12 years, Kavanaugh writes, he has ruled for workers and businessmen, for environmentalists and coal miners, and for the prosecution and for criminal defendants.
“I do not decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge.”
Kavanaugh’s claims of non-partisanship outlined in the WSJ op-ed directly contradict former advisor to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas C. Boyden Gray’s observation that Kavanaugh will inevitably be seen as a partisan choice. Unlike all of his predecessors, Kavanaugh will simply not be considered a bipartisan choice, in Thomas C. Boyden Gray’s opinion expressed in a recent interview with The Hill.
Furthermore, according to the New York Times, Kavanaugh is a staunch conservative on most issues, from abortion and gun control, over climate change and business regulation, to national security.
In light of multiple sexual misconduct allegations made against him, Judge Kavanaugh’s argument presented in the WSJ, about having a “long record of advancing and promoting women,” is guaranteed to spark controversy.
“A majority of my 48 law clerks have been women,” the judge writes.
A top professor at Yale Law School who endorsed Kavanaugh as a mentor to young women told a group of law students last year that it was “not an accident” that the judge’s clerks “all looked like models,” according to The Guardian.
BREAKING: Kavanaugh pens op-ed, decries 'vicious' attacks while saying he 'might have been too emotional' at hearing https://t.co/kY2D0m4pLk pic.twitter.com/oZ1oZpEYBH
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 5, 2018
Kavanaugh, he writes, now regrets his emotional response to sexual misconduct allegations, as well as his sharp tone.
“I was very emotional last Thursday, more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times. I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said,” he wrote for the WSJ, adding that he testified with members of his close family in mind.
Kavanaugh concluded his brief WSJ column vowing that he “reveres” the United States Constitution, promising to remain independent and impartial.
According to Vox, Senate Democrats have hit a dead end on Kavanaugh and he will likely be confirmed soon.
