September 27, 2018

“Is This Judicial Temperament?” Kavanaugh’s Fiery Opening Remarks Light Up the Internet

The Supreme Court nominee’s furious defiance drew a lot of criticism.

Saul Loeb/AP

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“You may defeat me in the final vote, but you will never get me to quit. Never.” 

His face red and voice rising to a shout, Judge Brett Kavanaugh delivered a blistering rebuttal to the accusations of sexual assault leveled against him by three women, including Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor who described the grim details of her alleged assault to the Senate Judiciary Committee over several hours Thursday morning.

On social media, political commentators reacted to Kavanaugh’s furious tone:

https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/1045396142224224256

The fury of Kavanaugh’s opening remarks drew parallels to Justice Clarence Thomas, who famously compared sexual harassment allegations against him to a “high-tech lynching.” 

Kavanaugh went on to criticize Democratic senators like Cory Booker of New Jersey—whom he did not refer to by name—for calling his supporters complicit in “evil.” 

Kavanaugh attached a partisan motivation to the allegations, saying they were driven by animus against President Donald Trump and even constituted “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.”

Listen: Jamilah King hosts a special breaking news edition of the Mother Jones Podcast, with Supreme Court reporter Stephanie Mencimer and Washington DC Bureau Chief David Corn. Everything you need to know about the historic Kavanaugh hearings—and what comes next.

We want to hear from you: How are you reacting to the hearing? We may publish a selection of your responses in a follow-up story.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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