Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to address the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh was filled with tears, crude jokes, and angry white men.
As Doreen St. Felix wrote for The New Yorker, the hearings “confirmed that male indignation will be coddled, and the gospel of male success elevated.”
But for all Kavanaugh’s indignation, he failed to answer several key questions from Senate Democrats.
Here’s a running list of the biggest questions the Supreme Court nominee dodged.
If he would comply with an FBI investigation
The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), was the first to ask Kavanaugh why he hadn’t yet asked the FBI to investigate the allegations against him and officially clear his name.
Instead of providing an answer, Kavanaugh sniped at Feinstein for waiting 10 days after the allegations levied by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford became public to schedule a hearing. The hearings, however, are not set by her, but by the majority, the Republicans.
“Ten days passed where all this nonsense is coming out, you know, that I’m in gangs, I’m on boats in Rhode Island, I’m in Colorado, you know, I’m sighted all over the place,” said Kavanaugh, who apparently mixed up his allegations of “gang rape” with being in an actual criminal gang.
If he is “Bart O’Kavanaugh”
Mark Judge, a man both Dr. Ford and another accuser, Julie Swetnik, say were present for their assaults, was a close childhood friend of Kavanaugh’s who wrote a book about his struggles with alcoholism as a young adult. Though some have said the book is “fictional,” it notably includes a character named “Bart O’Kavanaugh” who “puked in someone’s car” and “passed out on his way back from a party.”
When Sen. Patrick Leahy (I-VT) asked Kavanaugh if “Bart O’Kavanaugh” was modeled after him, Kavanaugh pivoted to accuse Leahy of “making fun of some guy who has an addiction.”
“I’m trying to get a straight answer from you under oath. Are you the Bart O’Kavanaugh he’s referring to?” Leahy asked a second time.
“You’d have to ask him,” Kavanaugh replied.
Leahy asks Kavanaugh whether the drunken "Bart O'Kavanaugh" he writes about in his book about being a drunk is supposed to be him. Kavanaugh dodges the question. pic.twitter.com/wAi2VhbK5E
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2018
If Mark Judge should testify
Despite Judge’s clear involvement in the allegations, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has failed to subpoena him so far.
When asked by Democrats Thursday whether he believed Judge should be subpoenaed, Kavanaugh told senators he didn’t believe that was necessary, as Judge had already provided sworn testimony.
Judge did provide an initial letter to the committee through his lawyer on September 18 — it was six sentences long and simply stated he had “no memory” of the incident Ford described or the party where her assault happened.
Many of the committee’s questions Thursday could have been answered if Judge, the one witness to the alleged assaults, was brought in for questioning, Democrats were quick to note this week.
Judge is currently in hiding, holed up in a Delaware beach house.
If he wishes Dr. Christine Blasey Ford never came forward
A majority of Kavanaugh’s testimony focused on the damage the numerous sexual assault allegations have inflicted on him and his family. With tears in his eyes Thursday, Kavanaugh lamented that he may not be able to coach basketball or teach law again.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) then asked Kavanaugh whether he wished Dr. Ford had never come forward with her allegations.
“The witnesses who were there said it never happened,” Kavanaugh responded.
Sen. Booker: "Do you wish she never came forward?"
Kavanaugh: "Senator, I did not do this –"
Booker: "That's not my question sir. Would you try to answer my question, sir? Do you wish she never came forward?"
Kavanaugh: "The witnesses who were there say it didn't happen." pic.twitter.com/uyhr6bqf6A
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) September 27, 2018
When asked if he believes Ford is a political pawn planted to sink his nomination, Kavanaugh dodged and repeatedly said he and his family “have no ill will toward her.”
If he has ever been black-out drunk
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) at one point asked Kavanaugh if he had ever consumed alcohol to the point of passing out or not remembering what happened.
Instead of giving an answer, Kavanaugh smirked and asked Klobuchar, who had just shared with him that she was the daughter of a recovering alcoholic, if she had ever been black out drunk.
Asked if he ever drank to the point of blacking out, Brett Kavanaugh says no, asking Sen. Klobuchar, "Have you?"
"Could you answer the question, judge? So, that's not happened, is that your answer?"
"Yeah, and I'm curious if you have." https://t.co/GGrl0K12EF #KavanaughHearings pic.twitter.com/i2F4UpkjLc
— ABC News (@ABC) September 27, 2018
“No I don’t have a drinking problem, sir,” Klobuchar replied.
“Me either,” Kavanaugh said.