By now, we all should know that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh liked to drink beer back in high school and college. He referenced drinking beer and liking beer about 50 times during Thursday afternoon’s hearing into the allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford in the 1980s when they were both in high school.
Nonetheless, Kavanaugh, despite acknowledging his love of beer, denied ever being blackout drunk or not remembering his actions as he consumed alcohol.
But a former Yale classmate of Kavanugh’s is now stepping forward, accusing the judge of “blatant mischaracterization” of his alcohol use as a student, the Boston Globe reports.
Chad Ludington recalled that that he often saw Kavanaugh “staggering from alcohol consumption,” during his years in college.
“It is truth that is at stake, and I believe that the ability to speak the truth, even when it does not reflect well upon oneself, is a paramount quality we seek in our nation’s most powerful judges,” Ludington said in a statement.
Ludington told the Globe that he intended to tell the FBI what he knew at its office in Raleigh, N.C., on Monday. In his a statement, Ludington, a former basketball player at Yale, said that he could “unequivocally” say Kavanaugh had “not told the truth,” in Thursday’s hearings.
He detailed that Kavanaugh had often been “belligerent and aggressive” while drunk during his first two years at the prestigious university. At one point, Ludington claimed, Kavanaugh had even thrown a beer in someone’s face “starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.”
Meanwhile, former NBA player Chris Dudley, who also attended Yale and was a good friend of Kavanaugh’s insisted that he had “never ever saw Brett Kavanaugh black out” from drinking and “never, ever saw him act inappropriately toward any woman in the 35 years that I’ve known him.”
The contradictory statements have come out as the FBI swiftly moves to finish a limited investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, which could be finished by Morning morning.
The FBI was instructed by the White House and Senate Republicans to interview four people in relation to the allegations, including Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth, both close high school friends of Kavanaugh’s; Leland Kyser, a high school friend of Ford, and Deborah Ramirez, another accuser, the Globe notes
However, Democrats have criticized the scope of the inquiry, saying that it is not enough to properly vet Kavanaugh.
Hawaii Democrat Sen. Mazie K. Hirono said on ABC’s This Week that any investigation that dictates who the FBI can interview in relation to the case would be a “farce,” while Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) accused the White House of micromanaging.
“You can’t interview this person, you can’t look at this time period. . . . “I mean, come on,” she said on CNN’s State of the Union.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is insisting that the White House is taking a hands-off approach.
NBC News incorrectly reported (as usual) that I was limiting the FBI investigation of Judge Kavanaugh, and witnesses, only to certain people. Actually, I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion. Please correct your reporting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2018