The look on wife's face says it all...

Kavanaugh denies sexual assault allegations on Fox News

By QUINT FORGEY

Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Monday took to cable news to offer another forceful defense against allegations of sexual assault from his time in high school and college that are imperiling his odds of ascending to the Supreme Court.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Kavanaugh, accompanied by his wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum in a pre-recorded interview.

“I’m not going to let false accusations drive us out of this process, and we’re looking for a fair process where I can be heard and defend my integrity, my lifelong record,” he added. “My lifelong record of promoting dignity and equality for women, starting with the women who knew me when I was 14 years old.”

The broadcast marks the most extraordinary escalation yet of the full-court press by the White House and congressional Republicans to salvage Kavanaugh’s nomination. He is already set to testify before senators later this week on the allegations.

“I want a fair process where I can defend my integrity,” Kavanaugh told MacCallum. “I know I’m telling the truth. I know my lifelong record, and I’m not going to let false accusations drive me out of this process. I have faith in God and I have faith in the fairness of the American people.”

Kavanaugh has been accused by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford of drunkenly forcing himself on her at a house party in Maryland more than 30 years ago, when they both were in high school. Another woman, Deborah Ramirez, told The New Yorker in a report published Sunday evening that Kavanaugh “thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent,” during a drunken dormitory party when Kavanaugh and she were students at Yale University.

“The truth is, I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone, in high school or otherwise,” Kavanaugh said on Fox. “I am not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps Dr. Ford at some point in her life was sexually assaulted by someone at some place, but what I know is I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone.”

Kavanaugh emphasized that the legal drinking age was 18 during his time in high school at Georgetown Prep in Maryland, and acknowledged that “people might have had too many beers on occasion.” But he upheld his categorical denial of allegations by Ford and Ramirez.

“I think all of us have probably done things we look back on in high school and regret, or cringe a bit, but that’s not what we’re talking about,” he said.

He also maintained that when he drank in high school, he never consumed so much alcohol that he couldn’t remember the events of the previous night. “That never happened,” Kavanaugh said.

Democrats have called for the FBI to open an investigation into the allegations, but Kavanaugh on Monday would not say whether the bureau should undertake such an inquiry, and instead pressed for the opportunity to present his case to senators as soon as possible.

“I was first interviewed last Monday, the day after the allegation appeared, by the committee staff under penalty of felony, and I denied this categorically and unequivocally,” he said. “And I said twice during that, I said, ‘I want a hearing tomorrow.’”

Kavanaugh also dismissed unsubstantiated accusations pushed by attorney Michael Avenatti that he was involved in efforts in the early 1980s to target women by plying them with alcohol and drugs at house parties in the Washington area. Avenatti, the attorney for the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, is claiming to represent a woman with “credible information” on Kavanaugh.

“That’s totally false and outrageous. I’ve never done any such thing, known about any such thing,” Kavanaugh said.

In an effort to refute the charges, Kavanaugh said he was a virgin throughout high school.

“I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter,” he said. “And the girls from the schools I went to and I were friends.”

“And through what years in college, since we’re probing into your personal life?” MacCallum asked.

“Many years after,” Kavanaugh said. “I'll leave it at that. Many years after.”

There appears to be no immediate historical parallel by a Supreme Court nominee for Kavanaugh’s last-minute but heavily orchestrated appearance on Fox News, which was announced by the network Monday afternoon.

President Donald Trump, who is in New York to attend the 73rd annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, plugged the Kavanaughs’ appearance Monday evening on Twitter. “This is an outstanding family who must be treated fairly!” he wrote.

Though no contenders for the high court in recent memory have gone to such public and personal lengths to defend their credibility outside the hearing room of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the framing of Kavanaugh’s sit-down does bear a political resemblance to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s 1992 interview with “60 Minutes” following allegations from Gennifer Flowers of sexual impropriety by the then-presidential candidate.

The wife of the accused proved an asset in that appearance, with Hillary Clinton memorably remarking that she was not “some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.”

Ashley Estes Kavanaugh played a more reserved but humanizing role on Monday, detailing the toll that the allegations against her husband had taken on the family.

“I know Brett,” she said. “I’ve known him for 17 years. And this is not at all — it's really hard to believe. He is decent, he’s kind, he’s good. I know his heart. This is not consistent with Brett.”

Estes Kavanaugh also described the “very difficult” conversations the couple has had with their two daughters.

“We’ve had to have some broader terms for our youngest,” she said. “But they know Brett. And they know the truth. And we told them at the very beginning of this process: ‘This will be not fun sometimes. You’re going to hear things that people feel strongly, and you need to know that. And just remember you know your dad.’”

The studios of Fox News have largely been friendly territory for Trump during high-stakes episodes of his administration, so it’s no surprise that the White House turned to the president’s favorite network when it came time to bolster public support for his embattled Supreme Court pick.

Trump in July hired former Fox News executive Bill Shine as White House communications director, following Shine’s ousting from the company in May 2017 over his handling of sexual harassment claims.

Kavanaugh said he was confident Trump would continue to back his nomination, and said he received a call from the president Monday afternoon during which the president reinforced his support for the judge.

“I know he’s going to stand by me,” Kavanaugh said.