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On Monday night, Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh said in a national television interview that in his youth he focused on sports, education and service projects. encouraging them to express themselves for the first time.
Liz Swisher, who describes herself as a friend of Kavanaugh's at the university, said she was shocked to find that in an interview focused on her high school years and her allegations of sexual misconduct,
"Brett was drunk, and I know because I drank with him. I saw him drink more than a lot of people. It would end up stammering his words, "said Swisher, a Democrat and Chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Washington's School of Medicine. "I can not say he lost consciousness. . . . But it is not credible for him to say that he had no memory in the nights when he drank too much.
Lynne Brookes, who, like Swisher, was a roommate of one of the two women who accused Kavanaugh of misconduct, testified that the candidate's comments on Fox did not match those of her classmate .
"He's trying to picture himself as some kind of choir boy," said Brookes, a Republican and former pharmaceutical executive who recalled a meeting with a drunken Kavanaugh at a fraternity event. "You can not make your way to the Supreme Court and with that statement, he went too far. It is the integrity of this institution. "
Kavanaugh's credibility will be put to the test this week as the Senate Judiciary Committee hears his testimony and that of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who claims to have sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers ago. a few decades. drunk. In the run-up to Thursday's hearing, three comrades from Yale Law School who had supported Kavanaugh requested an investigation into her claims and those of the other woman, and Akhil Amar, Yale Law Professor before the committee. called for an investigation on what he described as "serious charges".
The committee will have to assess Ford's credibility with Kavanaugh – and, to some extent, question whether Kavanaugh has been lacking in excess, as academics and athletes have pointed out in his interview with Fox.
In an extraordinary move, Kavanaugh pleaded Monday night on the conservative cable television channel. The interview was remarkable for its personal nature. At one point, Kavanaugh volunteered to remain "virgin" for many years after high school.
Kavanaugh reiterated his unequivocal denials that he had sexually assaulted Ford and that he had been exposed to Yale's classmate, Deborah Ramirez, in an article published Sunday in the New Yorker.
"I've always treated women with dignity and respect," he told Fox.
Kavanaugh described his young man as a devotee who was drinking beer – but never to the point of losing consciousness.
Martha MacCallum, Fox host, asked, "Have there been times when you may have drunk so much – was there ever a time when people did things in high school? you drank so much that you could not remember what happened the night before?
"No, it never happened," Kavanaugh said.
MacCallum asked again: "You've never told anyone," I do not remember anything from last night. "
"No, it did not happen," Kavanaugh said.
On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said, "It becomes absurd. Nobody claimed that Judge Kavanaugh had not drunk in high school or university. She quoted Fox's interview where Kavanaugh said he had been drinking youth: We are talking about an allegation of sexual assault. I have never sexually assaulted anyone.
Alexandra Walsh, a Kavanaugh lawyer, declined to comment on anything other than to report the White House statement.
Some Kavanaugh friends from high school and college contested the idea that his drinking was unmanageable.
"Alcohol was very prevalent in high school, but some people were better at it than others, and Brett has always kept his cool," said Tom Kane, a close friend who met Kavanaugh when these two people entered Georgetown Prep in 1979. Drunk. He has never been so interested in getting lost. "
Chris Dudley, who played basketball for Yale and then made a career in the NBA, said he considered Kavanaugh a great friend, unjustly accused.
"I went out with him all the time. He never lost consciousness. Never close to the blackout, "said Dudley, Republican candidate for Oregon in 2010." There was alcohol and alcohol. Brett drank and drank. Has he been intoxicated sometimes? Yes. Have I got? Yes. Like all other high school students in America.
Swisher, who lived with Ramirez for three years at the university, could not remember a specific case in which Kavanaugh had acknowledged that he could not remember the events of the previous night .
But Brookes, Ramirez's roommate for the past year, said she was there one night when Kavanaugh attended an event with her brother, Delta Kappa Epsilon. Brookes said that she thought there was "no way" to remember all the behaviors she had observed that night, when the brothers of the fraternity were pushed promises to be "ridiculously drunk" and do "ridiculous things".
Brookes said she remembers seeing Kavanaugh in front of the Sterling Memorial Library, dressed in a cape of superheroes and an old leather football helmet and swaying, working to keep her balanced.
He was ordered to jump on one foot, take his crotch and approach him with a nursery rhyme, Brookes said. He could not stay in balance, she said, but he closed the rhyme she still remembered: "I'm a geek, I'm a geek, I'm a powerful tool. When I sing this song, I look like a fool.
"You remember the story of a funny and drunk college – at least, I remember," Brookes said. As she has followed her career over the years and her rise in the federal judicial system, she said, "I thought it was so funny to think that it was the Brett singing that song.
The Post contacted Brookes and Swisher last week because they lived with Ramirez at different points in their undergraduate studies. Neither returned calls nor e-mails until Tuesday. Ramirez had never told her about her allegation – she accuses him of exposing herself to her while both were drunk at a party – but Brookes and Swisher said they believed in his testimony.
Years before his appointment to the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh admitted to having consumed a lot of alcohol in a 2014 speech at the Federalist Federal Yale Society. He recalls organizing a watered-down trip to Boston for 30 of his classmates from Yale Law for a baseball game and a night of barbopping, with "group chugs" and a return to campus. Yale Law School around 4:45 am "
According to his written remarks, he said: "Fortunately for all of us, we had a motto. What happens in the bus stays in the bus.
Another former classmate who publicly supported Ramirez, James Roche, said Kavanaugh had often consumed inconsistency. "He hung out with football players and footballers, and they drank a lot and were bros," said Roche, who briefly shared a room with Kavanaugh in their freshman year, in an interview this month. In a statement on Monday nightafter the Fox interview, Roche described Kavanaugh as a "particularly heavy drinker" who "became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk".
Meanwhile, three Yale classmates who, along with others, supported Kavanaugh last month in a letter to the judicial committee called Tuesday for an investigation into allegations of sexual assault.
"The confirmation process should be conducted in a way that promotes trust in the process and the Supreme Court, and that seriously considers the allegations of sexual violence," said Kent Sinclair, independent political practitioner who practices law in Beverly, Massachusetts and Douglas Rutzen. a lawyer in Washington and registered Democrat, said in a joint statement.
Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the St. Thomas University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, said in an interview, "The focus can not be solely on the accusers in question. The circumstances must be investigated.
Amar, the professor, wrote Monday in the Yale Daily News that an investigation would be the "best way forward".
"If the facts and conclusions of the investigation support him, then he will join the court in the sun and not under a cloud," he wrote.
Kavanaugh referred to his consumption of alcohol in his entry into the 1983 Georgetown Prep Yearbook. He has identified himself as the "greatest contributor" to the Ralph Club Beach Week, an apparent reference to vomiting and treasurer of the Keg City Club. "100 Kegs or Bust", says his article, referring to a campaign led by his friends to empty 100 kegs of beer during their last year.
The entry also made several references to women, including identifying Kavanaugh as a "Renate Alumnius". The New York Times reported Monday that the sentence, also contained in other Boys' Yearbook, was a reference to their alleged conquests involving student named Renate Schroeder from another high school.
"They were very disrespectful, at least verbally, with Renate," Sean Hagan, a Georgetown Prep graduate, told The Times. "I can not express how disgusted I am with them, then and now."
Walsh, Kavanaugh's lawyer, told the Times that the candidate was friends with the woman, now Renate Dolphin, "admired him a lot at that time and he admires him so far" . a high school event.
Dolphin did not respond to requests for comments. She told the Times that she had never kissed Kavanaugh.
"I heard about these pages from the phone book just a few days ago," Dolphin told The Times. "I do not know what Renate Alumnus means. I can not begin to understand what is happening in the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and just plain wrong. I pray that their daughters will never be treated this way.
Alice Crites, Beth Reinhard, Elise Viebeck and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
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