Contrite Kavanaugh Felt ‘Overwhelming Frustration at Being Wrongly Accused’

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh admitted late Thursday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he was “very emotional” last week — “more so than I have ever been” — while defending his family and good name against “being wrongly accused.”

The unprecedented article appeared at the end of a day in which senators from both parties have been occupied by reviewing the confidential report of the FBI’s seventh background investigation of Kavanaugh (shown above with his family) since he first entered public service in 1998 as a member of special counsel Ken Starr’s Whitewater probe.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pushing for the Senate to spend Friday and some part of Saturday debating Kavanaugh’s nomination and moving to a final vote on it before the weekend is complete.

The heart of Kavanaugh’s op-ed concerned his passionate testimony on September 27 before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. His appearance followed the appearance earlier in the day by Christine Blasey Ford, who claimed the nominee sexually assaulted her during a 1982 high school party when the two were teenagers in suburban Maryland.

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“During the confirmation process, I met with 65 senators and explained my approach to the law. I participated in more than 30 hours of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I submitted written answers to nearly 1,300 additional questions. I was grateful for the opportunity,” Kavanaugh wrote of his confirmation experience prior to the Ford allegations.

“After all those meetings and after my initial hearing concluded, I was subjected to wrongful and sometimes vicious allegations. My time in high school and college, more than 30 years ago, has been ridiculously distorted. My wife and daughters have faced vile and violent threats,” he wrote.

“Against that backdrop, I testified before the Judiciary Committee last Thursday to defend my family, my good name and my lifetime of public service. My hearing testimony was forceful and passionate. That is because I forcefully and passionately denied the allegation against me,” he continued.

“My wife and daughters have faced vile and violent threats.”

Then Kavanaugh acknowledged that “at times, my testimony — both in my opening statement and in response to questions — reflected my overwhelming frustration at being wrongly accused, without corroboration, of horrible conduct completely contrary to my record and character. My statement and answers also reflected my deep distress at the unfairness of how this allegation has been handled.”

“I was very emotional last Thursday,” he continued, “more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times. I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said. I hope everyone can understand that I was there as a son, husband and dad. I testified with five people foremost in my mind: my mom, my dad, my wife, and most of all my daughters.”

At that point, Kavanaugh shifted to a promise to be the kind of person and judge on the nation’s highest tribunal that he believes he has been throughout his legal career: “hardworking, even-keeled, open-minded, independent and dedicated to the Constitution and the public good.”

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It appears Kavanaugh’s op-ed is a response to comments by Democrats and liberal journalists following his testimony, that his visible anger at being wrongly accused and assumed guilty despite the paucity of corroborating evidence, demonstrated a temperament that is unsuited to the federal judiciary.

Kavanaugh has served the second-highest federal court for nearly 13 years and issued more than 300 opinions — many of which have been cited by the Supreme Court in its own decisions.

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