Kavanaugh Confirmation Hillary Clinton laughs at Kavanaugh’s claim of ‘revenge’

Hillary Clinton on Tuesday balked at Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's claim that the allegations of sexual misconduct against him are being carried out as part of "revenge on behalf of the Clintons," saying such a declaration "deserves a lot of laughter."

During a nine-hour hearing last week that gripped the country, Kavanaugh testified that Christine Blasey Ford's allegation was a "calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election." He also referenced his work on the Starr Report, which helped pave the way for President Bill Clinton's impeachment, and said he was the victim of revenge for the Clintons.


When asked about the statement at The Atlantic Festival on Tuesday, Clinton laughed.

"I thought it was part of the whole of his very defensive and unconvincing presentation," Clinton said. "I told someone later, 'Boy, I tell you, they give us a lot of credit — 36 years ago we started this against Kavanaugh.'"

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The former secretary of State added that if Kavanaugh is expected to approach cases and defendants with fairness, "there's lots to be concerned about."

By contrast, Clinton exalted Ford, the California professor and psychologist who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were both in high school. Since her testimony Thursday, Republicans have questioned Ford's credibility for not bringing up the decades-old allegations until now and being unable to remember specific details, such as the date the alleged incident took place.

Since Ford's allegations became public, two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, have accused Kavanaugh of separate sexual misconduct incidents during his high school and college years.

Ford testified that she and her family had been under excessive public scrutiny and had received death threats, causing them to relocate.

"You have to ask yourself, why would anybody put themselves through this if they did not believe that they had important information to convey to the Senate?" Clinton asked. "She said it was her civic duty."

Clinton also praised the two women who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Friday with their own stories of sexual assault as he was on his way to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which he demanded an FBI probe into the allegations. Flake said the women influenced his thinking on Kavanaugh's nomination.

Recalling the 1991 confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexual misconduct by professor Anita Hill, Clinton said Kavanaugh had been even more defiant.

"The performance, the behavior was quite out of bounds. I don't ever remember anything like that," Clinton said, while also blasting a double standard can judge women as too emotional for public office and leadership positions.

Democrats and Republicans alike have called into question Kavanaugh’s temperament during the hearing as potentially too strident. During a notable exchange, Kavanaugh turned back a question about excessive drinking to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who had just shared her experience with alcoholism in her own family.

On Tuesday, Flake recalled thinking to himself “we can’t have this on the court” as he watched Kavanaugh’s testimony and interactions with senators, though he later clarified he was not referencing the judge himself. Undecided senators, such as Flake, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), are expected to decide how they will vote this week as the FBI interviews key witnesses, including Ramirez and others both Ford and Kavanaugh have named.

The debate over whom to believe in the absence of definitively incriminating or exculpatory evidence has dominated the national conversation, with some arguing that allegations of sexual assault are now seen as vehicles for denying due process to the accused. President Donald Trump was the latest Republican to articulate such a stance, saying on Tuesday, "It's a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of."

But on Tuesday, Clinton denied that the debate pitted men against women.

"I don't see it so much as some kind of conflict as finally righting the balance, because there's been a tremendous imbalance on women's lives, women's narratives — they've been historically dismissed, condescended to," Clinton said.