Kavanaugh Tells Nation, ‘I’ve Never Sexually Assaulted Anyone’

Appearing with his wife in his first interview since he was hit with sexual assault allegations, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Monday night said he never did anything remotely like what two women have described.

Kavanaugh (pictured above left) said he never even had had sex during high school or college, when the incidents purportedly occurred.

“I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years, thereafter,” he said during an interview on “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” with Fox News host MacCallum.

The interview is part of a counteroffensive by Kavanaugh’s team in the wake of thinly supported 11th-hour allegations about events that supposedly happened more than three decades ago and now threaten to sink his nomination.

Related: Finally, a Republican with a Backbone’: Readers React to Kavanaugh’s Vow to Remain Strong

The stakes could not be higher. He represents the fifth vote on a court that currently is split 4-4 along ideological lines since Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement this past summer.

If Kavanaugh goes down, it would be too late for President Donald Trump to make another appointment and complete the confirmation process before midterm elections, which could upend GOP control of the Senate.

Even if Republicans keep control of the Senate, killing the Kavanaugh nomination in this manner will encourage even more such gutter politics against all nominees by presidents of both parties.

The first allegation came from Christine Blasey Ford, a California college professor who contends that a drunken, teenage Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and tried to take off her clothes at a house party in suburban Washington, when both were in high school in 1982.

She told The Washington Post that she feared she might die when Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming and that she managed to get away only when the future nominee’s friend, Mark Judge, jumped onto both of them and all three went tumbling to the ground.

“I never did any such thing. The other people alleged to be there don’t recall any such thing. If such a thing did happen, it would have been the talk of campus.”

On Sunday, The New Yorker published the account of Deborah Ramirez, a fellow freshman at Yale University, who says Kavanaugh thrust his penis in her face while she was intoxicated at a dorm party.

And then lawyer Michael Avenatti claimed he has a client who can testify about gang rapes, in which Kavanaugh and his friends allegedly participated.

Kavanaugh, who currently is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, emphatically denied each allegation.

“I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone — not in high school, not ever,” he said. “I’ve always treated women with dignity and respect. Listen to the people who know me best, through my whole life, the ones who have known me since high school.”

Kavanaugh said he may have met Ford in high school but did not travel in the same circles. He noted that the incident allegedly occurred in the summer of 1982 at a small party at a house near Connecticut Avenue and East West Highway in Maryland.

“I was never at any such party,” he said. “The other people who are alleged to be present have said they do not remember any such party.”

Kavanaugh acknowledged to drinking some in high school and doing things that make him cringe in retrospect. But he said he never did anything like what Ford alleges and never had so much to drink that he did not remember the previous night.

Likewise, Kavanaugh said, he never did anything like what Ramirez alleges.

“I never did any such thing,” he said. “The other people alleged to be there don’t recall any such thing. If such a thing did happen, it would have been the talk of campus.”

Finally, Kavanaugh flatly denied Avenatti’s claims that the nominee and his friends targeted women with alcohol and drugs at multiple house parties.

“That’s totally false and outrageous,” he said. “Never done any such thing, known about any such thing.”

While Kavanaugh’s supporters have cast the allegations as part of a “smear campaign,” Kavanaugh declined to question the motives of his accusers or Senate Democrats. He also declined to answer questions about how much weight should be given to a nominee’s conduct as a teenager. He said he did not do the things that have been alleged and repeatedly said he just wants a “fair process,” in which he has a chance to be heard and to clear his name.

His wife, Ashley Kavanaugh (pictured above right), told McCallum that she never has doubted her husband.

Related: ‘Finally a Republican with a Backbone’: Readers React to Kavanaugh’s Vow to Stand Strong

“I know Brett,’ she said. “I’ve known him for 17 years. … He’s decent. He’s kind. He’s good. I know his heart.”

Ashley said it has been difficult to see her husband subjected to the accusations.

“This process is incredibly difficult, harder than we imagined,” she said. “And we imagined it might be hard. But at the end of the day, our faith is strong, and we know that we’re on the right path. We’re just going to stick to it.”

Kavanaugh said he talked to Trump Monday and appreciates his continued support.

“I’m not going to let false accusations drive us out of this process …  I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

Watch the interview: