It was a huge joke during Saturday Night Live’s opening skit, but the amount Brett Kavanaugh drank and what happened when he consumed alcohol back in high school and college is a very serious topic. There are reports that the White House has instructed the FBI not to look into the Supreme Court nominee’s drinking and ABC reports:
“Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested that there is no need for the FBI’s supplemental investigation of Brett Kavanaugh to include talking to his former classmates about his drinking habits in college.”
Whether the drinking itself is disqualifying is up for debate, but lying under oath to Congress would be. Also, what happened to Kavanaugh when he drank excessively should be investigated. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary committee, told CBS:
“…the reason it’s relevant is perhaps he doesn’t remember what happened because there were repeated incidences of this excessive drinking.”
There's a lot of reluctance among Kavanaugh's defenders to explore the subject of his drinking. (The new argument is that it's "goalpost shifting.") And Kavanaugh was exceptionally evasive about it in his testimony, to the point of repeatedly lying. It's a pretty obvious "tell". https://t.co/i6qFj01pBV
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 1, 2018
James Roche, Kavanaugh’s roommate at the time of Deborah Ramirez’s allegation told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh was “frequently, incoherently drunk.” Then there is new information from Yale Classmate Chad Ludington, who wrote this in the New York Times:
“In recent days I have become deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale.”
“Brett was a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker. I know, because, especially in our first two years of college, I often drank with him. On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive. On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.”
Another Yale classmate Lynn Swisher told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, “I drank beer with him, I liked beer. There’s no problem with drinking beer in college the problem is lying about it. He drank heavily… he was a sloppy drunk.”
https://twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1045854130084884480
If the FBI won’t investigate the drinking though Dan Rather has faith in fellow journalists, knowing they will keep digging and keep uncovering the truth:
“News is what the powerful want to keep hidden. By limiting the scope of the FBI investigation on Kavanaugh, the White House is daring the press to shed more light on what’s lurking in the shadows. I expect my colleagues will not disappoint. Hold on to your hats.”