The White House said the New York Times is “committed to embarrassing” Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after the newspaper published a 1983 letter in which Kavanaugh appears to refer to himself and his friends as “loud, obnoxious drunks.”
The Times piece, published Tuesday, reveals a letter Kavanaugh has confirmed he wrote to his friends ahead of a beach getaway, outlining how to handle the rental property. The letter—signed “Bart,” Kavanaugh’s nickname, according to the Times—includes a post script suggesting someone “warn the neighbors that we’re loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us. Advise them to go about 30 miles.”
Kavanaugh said during his testimony last week that he did drink beer as a teen, but not to the point of blacking out.
“It seems the New York Times is committed to embarrassing Judge Kavanaugh with three-decade-old stories of adolescent drinking,” White House spokesperson Kerri Kupec in response to the publication, according to NBC News.
“He has already acknowledged under oath that he drank underage, frequently attended high school parties, sometimes drank too much, that he ‘likes beer,’ that he wasn’t perfect, and that he, as many people do, ‘cringes’ at some of his youthful behavior,” Kupec continued.
President Donald Trump has stood behind his nominee throughout the confirmation hearings, even after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and two other woman came forward with sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, who has denied the claims.