Democrats question Kavanaugh's credibility, temperament

Brett Kavanaugh. Photo / AP

Democrats are raising new questions about the truthfulness of Brett Kavanaugh's sworn testimony to the Senate while the White House has given the FBI clearance to interview anyone it wants to by Saturday in its investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democrats' leader, accused Kavanaugh of delivering a "partisan screed" during the Judiciary Committee hearing on Friday. He said Kavanaugh seemed willing to "mislead senators about everything from the momentous to the mundane" to ensure his ascension to the high court.

"The harsh fact of the matter is that we have mounting evidence that Judge Kavanaugh is just not credible," Schumer said yesterday.

Not so, argued Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, contending the Democrats are simply looking to "move the goalposts" to prevent Kavanaugh's confirmation. He pledged that the full Senate would begin voting on Kavanaugh's nomination this week. "The time for endless delay and obstruction has come to a close," he said.

Kavanaugh's confirmation hinges on a handful of key Republican and Democratic senators who have not yet fully tipped their votes. One of them is Republican Jeff Flake, who was greeted by hundreds of liberal protesters, victims of sexual assault among them, during an appearance in Boston yesterday.

Flake and senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were instrumental last week in holding up Kavanaugh's confirmation vote. They forced the White House to open the supplemental background investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against the judge.

The FBI has only until Saturday to conduct that investigation, but the White House has given it clearance to interview anyone it wants to.

The new guidance, described to the Associated Press by a person familiar with it, was issued to the FBI in response to Democratic and news media pushback that the scope of the probe was too narrow.

In recent days the FBI has questioned at least four people about accusations of misconduct against Kavanaugh dating to when he was in high school and university. Among the witnesses interviewed were men who California university professor Christine Blasey Ford says were present at a party of teenagers in the early 1980s at which she says she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh.

The FBI is also believed to have interviewed Deborah Ramirez, who told the New Yorker Kavanaugh exposed his penis to her when both were students at Yale. It may also interview Julie Swetnick, who claims Kavanaugh was physically abusive towards girls in high school and was at a house party in 1982 where she says she was the victim of a gang rape.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the FBI and White House yesterday that listed more than two dozen people they would like to see contacted.

Trump, addressing concerns about the probe's expansiveness at a news conference yesterday, said he wants the FBI to do a "comprehensive" investigation and "it wouldn't bother me at all" if agents pursued accusations made by the three women who have come forward. But he also said Senate Republicans were determining the parameters of the investigation.

The revised guidance was aimed at promoting an investigation that could tamp down Democratic criticism and satisfy on-the-fence Republicans about its thoroughness and fairness while also ensuring a fixed deadline to prevent the probe from becoming open-ended and spanning weeks.

In a statement on Monday, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh's said he was "deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterisation by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale". Charles "Chad" Ludington, who teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was a friend of Kavanaugh's at Yale and said Kavanaugh was "a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker".

While saying youthful drinking should not condemn a person for life, Ludington said he was concerned about Kavanaugh's statements under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

- AP