Brett Kavanaugh and alcohol: two stories of duels

"I watched this audience and saw a man say that he was having trouble drinking when he was young."

– President Trump, remarks at a press conference on October 1, 2018

Did Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, a Supreme Court candidate for President Trump, have a problem with alcoholism in his youth and was he honest about his drinking habits? 39; alcohol?

A woman, Christine Blasey Ford, claims to have sexually assaulted her after drinking a lot at high school. Another classmate, Deborah Ramirez of Yale University, says she exposed herself to a drunken evening, although her memory of what happened is unclear.

"Brett mulled my head and tried to undress me. He was having trouble because he was drunk and I was wearing a one-piece swimsuit under my clothes. I thought he was going to rape me, "Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Brett was laughing," Ramirez told the New Yorker. "I can still see her face and her hips going forward, like when you put on your pants."

Kavanaugh categorically denies both allegations. During his testimony before the Judiciary Committee on September 27, Kavanaugh made the distinction between admitting to having drunk too much beers on the occasion and saying that he had never drunk so much that he could not remember what happened the next day.

"My friends and I sometimes got together and organized parties on weekends," Kavanaugh said. "The age of alcohol consumption was 18 in Maryland for most of my time in high school and 18 in D.C. all my time in high school. I've been drinking beer with my friends. Almost everyone did it. Sometimes I had too many beers. Sometimes others have done it. I liked the beer. I still love beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of unconsciousness, and I never sexually assaulted anyone.

(Note: The legal drinking age was raised to 21 years in Maryland when Kavanaugh was still 17 and at age 20 in Connecticut when he entered Yale.)

Kavanaugh has also downplayed consumer hints in the high school yearbook, for example as "treasurer" of the Keg City Club, a line on "100 Kegs or Bust" (a priority goal being to empty 100 drums of beer). was the "biggest contributor" to the Ralph Club Beach Week. He acknowledged that "Ralph" was the code for vomiting but said, "I am known to have a fragile stomach."

Kavanaugh's Yale fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, was known for its party culture.

Sarah Hepola, author of a memoir entitled "Blackout," wrote that the blackout is "an alcohol-induced temporary state in which you can stay functional and converse, but later, you will not be able to." You will have no more memories of what you did. brain did not press the '& # 39; recording & # 39 ;. So, if it could be established that Kavanaugh had already fainted while he was drinking, this would provide a possible explanation of Ford's living memory of an attack and his insistence that, where appropriate , he not involved.

Asked directly about his loss of consciousness, Kavanaugh said, "I fell asleep, but I never fainted. This is the allegation? That's wrong. "

Until now, no evidence has been released that Kavanaugh was arrested for a fight in a bar, cited for drinking alcohol or treated for alcoholism. In addition, no one protested to remember Kavanaugh as a student, admitting that he could not remember what had happened the night before.

Rather, we have diametrically opposed memories offered by friends and former classmates during media interviews: he was either a social drinker who never let himself go to excess, either he was a drunkard stumbling, sometimes naughty. Disturbing stories also emerged about the pre-school culture in Washington in the 1980s, in which men lined up to meet a drunk woman, and Yale's stratification between jocks and alumni such as Kavanaugh. and people from more modest backgrounds.

Since these memories have been spread across various media, here is a complete collection of these conflicting accounts. The fact finder found at least six statements in the record that criticized his consumption of alcohol and at least three people who denied it was a problem. (We did not include anonymous accounts.) There is not enough consistent information to assign a Pinocchio rating, so readers can judge for themselves.

Kavanaugh was a "botched drunkard" and had surely had power cuts

Liz Swisher, A classmate of Yale who is now head of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology of the University of Washington School of Medicine, told The Washington Post:

"Brett was drunk, and I know because I drank with him. I saw him drink more than a lot of people. He would end up stammering his words, stumbling … There is no medical way to say that 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.

On CNN, Swisher has developed his memories: "He drank a lot. It was a party animal. He liked to bang beer. He played alcohol games. He was a sloppy drunkard. He was more interested in impressing boys than girls. I never saw him sexually aggressive, but he was definitely drunk.

Lynne Brookes, Another classmate and roommate from Ramirez to Yale, now general manager of Synchrony Healthcare Communications, told CNN:

"There is no doubt in my mind that while he was at Yale, he was a big supporter, often drunk to excess. And there must have been a number of nights he can not remember anymore. In fact, I witnessed the night he was exploited in this fraternity, and he stumbled drunk in a ridiculous costume saying really stupid things. And I can almost guarantee that there is no way he can remember that night. "

Brookes, in an interview with The Post, recalled that Kavanaugh wore a superhero cloak and an old leather football helmet and swayed, striving to keep his balance. He was ordered to jump on one foot, grab his crotch and approach him with a nursery rhyme. He could not keep his balance, she said, but he kept the rhyme that she remembers so far: "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.

Daniel Lavan, Kavanaugh told The New York Times: "I have certainly seen him repeatedly stumble drunk where he could not have rational control over his actions or a clear memory of them … His description of him -Even is inaccurate. "

James RocheKavanaugh's first-year roommate at Yale, now general manager of a software company called Helix Re, issued a statement stating that Kavanaugh was "a heavy drinker, even by the standards of the day, and that he became aggressive and aggressive he was very drunk … I remember Brett who often drank excessively and got drunk inconsistently. "Roche said that he was not aware of the incident alleged by Ramirez, but" according to my experience with Brett, I think he and his social entourage were capable of acts described by Debbie. "

S. Christopher "Kit" winter, a first-year roommate and now a lawyer in Los Angeles told The Cut that Kavanaugh and his crowd, whom Winter described as "noisy and odious drunkards looking like fraternal boys," were the biggest drinkers on the campus. "There was a lot of vomit in the bathroom," he said. "Nobody has ever cleaned up. It was disgusting. It was not incidental. "Oh, this weekend, someone vomited in the bathroom." People were constantly vomiting in the bathroom. Constantly."

Charles "Chad" Ludington, a former basketball player at Yale and today a professor at North Carolina State University, he stated that he could "unequivocally assert" that Kavanaugh had "not told the truth" in his testimony in the Senate . He said that he knew Kavanaugh because the future judge liked to socialize with athletes.

"At Yale, and I can not speak at any other time, Brett was a hard-working drinker and an excessive drinker," Ludington said. "I know it because, especially during our first two years in college, I often drank with him. On many occasions, I heard Brett issue reproaches and I saw him staggering under the effect of drinking alcohol, which was not just beer. . When Brett was drunk, he was often aggressive and aggressive. On one of the last occasions when I voluntarily socialized with Brett, I saw him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer at the man's face and starting a fight. "A police report showed that Kavanaugh had been questioned in the incident but had not been arrested.

In his remarks to reporters, Ludington said, "He is often unable to remember what was happening."

Kavanaugh drank but was not a "drunkard who stumbles"

Tom Kane, a high school friend from Georgetown Prep, told CNN: "We drank a lot, but I never saw him stumble. I never knew it to forget anything. He was a high level man, like most of us. And no, he was still under control.

In an interview with The Post, Kane said: "Alcohol consumption was predominant in high school, but some men were better off than others, and Brett still kept his blood. cold … He's never been so interested in waste. "

Dan Murphy, a roommate from Yale, said in a statement distributed by the White House: "I've never seen Brett faint or not be able to remember the events of the previous evening, and I'm not sure. I've never seen Brett become aggressive, hostile or sexually aggressive. Women's. Brett was and is a person of good humor, kind and friendly towards men and women. The behavior that I heard other people want to attribute to him, but from people who did not live with Brett and therefore were not in the same position to observe, is simply false and such behavior is incompatible with what I know to be true. "

Chris Dudley, another Yale friend who played professional basketball in a 16-year career that ended in 2003, told The Fact Checker: "I'm quite puzzled about exactly what's going on. Brett said that he had been drinking … .But he never lost consciousness, he never acted badly towards any woman. He was a humble, kind and gentle person.

Ludington, interviewed by reporters about the statement that Kavanaugh never fainted, said, "Unfortunately, I think my friend, who is probably now an ex-friend, is lying."

Brookes, in his interview with CNN, said, "I remember one particular part where Brett and Chris Dudley were both very drunk. And they thought it would be really fun to break into a room where a guy and a girl had gone together and embarrassed that woman. Chris Dudley was, I believe, the one who entered Brett Kavanaugh, and they found that funny. The girl was mortified and I was furious. So, I'm not sure that he's the best character witness. "

When asked about this alleged incident, Dudley dismissed it as fake: "It's ridiculous. I do not know what she's talking about It's so sad. "

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