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President Trump speaks at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden Monday.
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Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
President Trump speaks at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden Monday.
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Drinking beer became an important theme at the hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Saturday Night Live Brett Kavanaugh, a Supreme Court nominee, has used many references to drink beer with his friends.
But there are serious questions underlying all the attention to beer: if Kavanaugh was fully present in his testimony and what was his behavior when he was drunk.
During his press conference at Rose Garden on Monday, President Trump was asked about the withdrawal of Kavanaugh's candidacy when it was established that he had lied about the fact that he had drunk under oath.
"I was surprised to see how clearly he said he liked beer," Trump said. "And he had a little trouble, I mean, he talked about things that happened when he drank, I mean, it's not a man who said that alcohol was – that he was perfect when it comes to alcohol. "
Later, Trump again described Kavanaugh as describing an alcohol problem when he was younger. "I watched this audience and saw a man say that he was having trouble drinking when he was young," Trump said.
Kavanaugh has never gone so far in his testimony, speaking mainly in general terms. "I drank beer with my friends," Kavanaugh said in his opening statement. "Almost everyone did it.Sometimes I had too many beers, sometimes others too.I liked beer.I still love beer.But I do not have beer. I did not drink beer to the point of losing consciousness, and I have never sexually assaulted anyone. "
He later added that, in high school, his friends and he "sometimes did silly things or nonsense," things he said he would turn around and turn around.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate on Thursday, September 27, 2018.
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Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate on Thursday, September 27, 2018.
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Democratic senators have insisted to get more details on his alcohol consumption, that it is a reference to "club ralph" related to vomiting due to excessive consumption of alcohol and alcohol. Alcohol and the question of whether he had already forgotten details after a night spent drinking. In both cases, Kavanaugh repulsed the senators by asking them if they had already drunk too much.
WHITEHOUSE: And the world "ralph" that you used in your directory …
(CROSSTALK)
KAVANAUGH: I already have – I've already answered …
WHITEHOUSE: … do you refer (ph) to alcohol?
KAVANAUGH: … the question. If you are…
WHITEHOUSE: Does this have anything to do with alcohol? You have not answered that.
KAVANAUGH: I like beer. I like beer. I do not know if you do it …
WHITEHOUSE: OK.
KAVANAUGH: … do you like beer, senator, or not?
WHITEHOUSE: Uh, then …
KAVANAUGH: What do you like to drink?
WHITEHOUSE: The next one is …
KAVANAUGH: Senator, what do you like to drink?
At one point, rather than answering a question about alcohol consumption, Kavanaugh began reciting his academic and sports credentials. He also opaquely blamed a disagreement between college classmates because of the assertion of a classmate at the university that he was aggressive or even bellicose when he was drunk.
KLOBUCHAR: OK. I will not ask questions about the directory. Most people have consumed alcohol in high school and college, and many even have problems with alcoholism and excessive consumption of alcohol. My own father was struggling with alcoholism most of his life and he got in trouble for that, and it had consequences. He is still in A. at age 90, he is sober and, according to his words, he was pursued by grace, and so it is that he overcame this ordeal. So in your case, you have said, here and elsewhere, that you have never drunk so much that you have not remembered what happened. But yet, we heard – not under oath, but we heard your college roommate say that you drink frequently. These are in the reports. That you are sometimes belligerent. Another classmate said that it was not credible to say that you had no faulty memory. So, drinking is one thing.
KAVANAUGH: I do not think – I – I do not think that – the second quote is correct. On the first quote, if you would, I provided some further written material on the situation of the first-time roommate, and I do not really want to repeat it in a public hearing, but just so you know, he There were three people in a room, Dave White, Jamie Roach (ph) and me, and the situation was controversial: Jamie did not like Dave White. I was – at all, and I'm in this …
KLOBUCHAR: OK, I – I'm coming …
…
KLOBUCHAR: OK. Drinking is one thing, but worry is the truth, and in your written testimony you said that sometimes you drank too much. Was there a time when you drank so much that you could not remember what had happened or a part of what had happened the night before?
KAVANAUGH: No, I – no. I remember what happened, and I think you probably drank beer, senator, and so I–
KLOBUCHAR: So you're saying that there's never been a case where you've been so drunk that you do not remember what had happened the night before, or a part of what happened.
KAVANAUGH: It's you're wondering about, you know, blackout. I do not know. Have you got?
KLOBUCHAR: Could you answer the question, Judge? I'm coming – so you – it has not happened. Is this your answer?
KAVANAUGH: Yes, and I'm curious to know if you have.
KLOBUCHAR: I have no problem with alcohol, Judge.
KAVANAUGH: Yes, me neither.
KLOBUCHAR: All right, thank you.
…
KAVANAUGH: I'll start by saying that I started my last symposium by telling Senator Klobuchar how much I respected her and respected what she did at the last hearing. And she asked me a question at the end, to which I replied by asking her a question and I did not – sorry, I did it. It is a difficult process. I'm sorry about that.
KLOBUCHAR: I appreciate it. I would like to add that if you have an alcoholic parent, you pay very close attention to the consumption of alcohol.
Kavanaugh's sometimes evasive responses to alcohol consumption have prompted many people who knew him at high school and college to make themselves known in recent days.
"When Brett got drunk, he's often been aggressive and aggressive," wrote his classmate to Yale, Chad Ludington, in a statement released Sunday by The New York Times. "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 in the face of the man and starting a fight that ended with one of our friends in prison. "In a report published online Monday, the temperature provided more details on the 1985 incident.
The White House has distributed statements from two other college classmates who have said they have never seen such behavior.
"I not only socialized with Brett, but I was there with him at the end of the night when we got home and in the morning when we got up." I never saw Brett lose consciousness or not be able to remember the previous evening. " I have never seen Brett be aggressive, hostile or sexually aggressive towards women. Brett was and still is a good, kind and friendly person with both men and women, "said former dorm mate Dan Murphy in a statement." The behavior I've heard that d & # 39; other people want to attribute it to him, but that of people who did not live with Brett and were therefore not in the same situation, is simply wrong and such behavior is incompatible with what I know to be true. "
Regardless of what President Trump said Monday at the Rose Garden, those in the White House seeking confirmation from Kavanaugh do not give in to the idea that he had "trouble drinking in his youth ".
Raj Shah, White House spokesperson for Kavanaugh's confirmation, said that what Kavanaugh describes is rather typical of high school and university behavior, which he usually has. recognized just about everything, "including drinking too much and sometimes too much alcohol.
How to explain the characterization of Kavanaugh by Trump? Trump's views on alcohol are shaped by his own life experience.
At an opioid event last year at the White House, Trump talked about his brother Fred, who told him from a very young age never to drink. "He had an alcohol problem," Trump told his brother.
"He had a very very hard life because of alcohol – believe me, a very hard life, difficult," Trump said. "It was a strong guy, but it was a hard test to live on."
It is perhaps ironic that beer plays such a central role in the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court's choice of president who despises alcohol.
"I'm just saying that I'm not a drinker," Trump told reporters on Monday. "Honestly, I can say that I've never drank beer in my life, okay?" However, he said, he went to high school and university parties where people drank and became "crazy".
"They were 16 or 17 years old and I saw a lot of them, does that mean that they can not do anything they want to do with their lives?" Trump asked.
And that, according to Shah, was Trump's point of view: Kavanaugh "drank a lot" (to use Trump's phrasing) but that was a long time ago and should not overshadow his accomplished career and his qualifications to be Judge at the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh's critics assert that he was just not forthright about his alcohol consumption many years ago, especially when he was under oath to testify before the Senate Committee on Judicial Magistracy last week. They argue that this is relevant not only for the sake of truth, but also because alcohol can affect behavior and memory, and Christine Blasey Ford claims that Kavanaugh was in a state of drunkenness when he was in a state of drunkenness. he assaulted her – an event that he vigorously denies.
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