More than two dozen women who personally know D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh from different times in his life gathered Thursday at the Capitol to share why they are standing by him amid allegations of sexual misconduct by Christine Blasey Ford and others.
The women hand-delivered more than 100 letters that personally testify to his character to senators who apparently are on the fence about voting to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Unlike many groups on the left that are being paid to protest or are affiliated with political groups, these women are organically organized and motivated by nothing more than defending Kavanaugh’s character.
Since most of the mainstream media isn’t telling their stories, The Daily Signal is. Watch the video above, or read the lightly edited transcript below of our conversation with Laura Cox Kaplan, Cathy Martin, and Meghan McCaleb.
Kelsey Harkness: We’re here on Capitol Hill with a group of more than two dozen women who know Brett Kavanaugh personally, and what they’re doing today is they’re going to walk over to the Senate to hand deliver over 100 letters from women who personally know Brett Kavanaugh. These letters testify to his character, arguing that he should be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Can you tell us a little bit more about why you’re organizing and really putting yourself out in the public personally in such a contentious fight?
Laura Cox Kaplan: Sure, Kelsey, thanks so much for the time this morning. We are very happy and honored to be here even though this has not been an easy process at all for our friend, his family, or for any of us.
But we feel very strongly. Each of the women who’s gathered here today knows Brett Kavanaugh personally. Many people, including my friend Meghan here, has known him going all the way back to high school.
So we know the kind of person that he is. There’s been a lot of discussion about demeanor during the hearing and to that I think that we would all say anyone who has been wrongly accused of something so horrendous and so devastating for them and their family, frankly has a right to be angry.
That’s not indicative of his character or the way we’ve ever seen him behave. I’ve never seen him get angry, never seen him yell, never seen him yell at his children, ever. It’s not who he is.
I think that these are extraordinary circumstances and we’re here to support he and his family.
Kelsey Harkness: I’m going to continue passing the mic around and let you all give us more color into how you know Judge Kavanaugh and also what it’s like putting yourself out again personally, putting your face out there and stepping into this really difficult time for our entire country.
Cathy Martin: I’ve known Brett Kavanaugh and his family for a long time. I’ve known Brett for over two decades, and I knew him when he met his wife Ashley, so I’m close personal friends with Brett and the family. I’ve also worked with Brett as a colleague in the White House, so I’ve seen him in many aspects of his life, both personal and professional aspects.
In the White House after 9/11, some of the darkest days for our country when things were incredibly tense, Brett was steady and calm and an even hand in the office of staff secretary, guiding the White House staff and the president’s advisers to get everyone’s input in a ways that were often contentious, but Brett was an even hand, steady and calm in those very turbulent waters in getting the information that needed to go to the president for his decisions.
I witnessed that first hand. I’ve seen him on the side of sporting events, I’ve seen him with children, I’ve seen him in all aspects of any sort of friendship as you would see any friend.
I’ve never seen him be anything but a total gentleman. I’ve never seen him yell, I’ve never seen him get upset, but I do agree that this has been such a turbulent time for his family. To have your small children and your wife be dragged through the mud as part of this confirmation process, anyone would be upset and angry. I don’t think that his demeanor is indicative of his character.
I’ve seen his character be of the highest integrity–he has a really strong moral compass. He is, in my mind, one of the friends I hold up as a standard bearer of someone who would do the right thing.
And so the reason I am willing to come out and talk about Brett Kavanaugh is because it’s the right thing to do. ‘Cause he’s good and decent, and these allegations are unsubstantiated and it’s wrong what’s happening to him.
McCaleb: I just want to follow up on that as well. You know, there’s not very many people that 65 women from high school would immediately stand up for.
I was one of the people who coordinated that letter and within three hours we were able to find from high school, female friends from high school, that would stand up for his character. That he was always a responsible, polite, respectful boy at the time and through the years–since he’s still friends with so many of us–and that just speaks so highly of his character. We went to Redskins games, and Orioles games, and parties and he always was respectful, always responsible.
Since there’s no corroboration for this accusation, I feel like we are proud to stand with him because that’s exactly how he was and is.
Harkness: Since you were a friend from high school, I have to ask. These high school parties, his yearbook, all of this is getting looked into. Do you think anything in his high school years are problematic or that they really should be a point of discussion in these hearings, or really in this fight now?
McCaleb: I do not. I feel like people have to remember he was a teenager. They were 17, 18-year-old boys and kind of hamming it up, but again there were some who were definitely wilder than others and Brett was one of the more responsible ones.
I feel like they have dissected that yearbook and so much of it has been absolutely blown out of proportion. Since high school and college, socially he rarely has more than one or two beers.
You know, everybody grows up and gets out of the crazy teenage years. I think that’s what you have to look to, not those high school years.
Harkness: So as I mentioned, yourselves and over two dozen other women are hand-delivering letters to Sens. [Lisa] Murkowski, [Susan] Collins, [Jeff] Flake and possibly some others who are on the fence about whether or not to vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.
Tell us what your message is in those letters and what you think can be effective in telling these senators that are on the fence about whether or not to believe these allegations?
Cox Kaplan: Sure. Well I think what’s most important about the letters is that each of the letters is written from the person’s personal perspective and knowledge of Brett Kavanaugh. Each woman wrote about her experiences with him, as a testament to his character. Telling stories about experiences that she’s had, circumstances that were difficult where she saw him rise above the fray, help women, [and] empower them.
There are letters from clerks, there are letters from high school friends, there are letters from colleagues, there are letters from women that he coaches their girls’ basketball team, the moms of those basketball players.
It’s a really diverse mix of women that he has encountered over the course of his lifetime and they’re writing with personal testaments as to his character, his integrity, his qualifications, and some cases the clerks are writing about qualifications as well.
So it really covers the gamut, but what’s most important to remember is that each letter is personal to that woman who actually knows him.
Martin: I think our message is simple, and it is to please listen to the women who know him.
Listen to the people who know him best, who know him across the course of the breadth of his life through all these circumstances, and uniformly, women say he is a man of very high character, of highest integrity, and has the temperament and demeanor, not the least of which the expertise to be an incredible associate justice on the Supreme Court.
McCaleb: And I just reiterate that there’s so many girls here today that went to high school with him and we are here because we knew him.
We knew how he acted and I think that is really important for the senators to realize that you need to talk to the people that actually knew him.
Harkness: I think that brings me to my last question. It is kind of astonishing that there’s so many women who are willing to show their face and come forward and testify to his character in this contentious moment for our nation and yet it does seem like a lot of the media will focus on the very few letters that have come out that are saying anything different from what you all are stating.
My last question speaks to the media: do you think they’ve been fair in covering what you all know about Judge Kavanaugh is versus the very few letters that say anything otherwise?
Cox Kaplan: We don’t believe that the person that we know, the character that we know, has been accurately depicted in the media. That is true.
We are saddened and disappointing by this, we’re saddened and disappointed that false accusations, that someone can be assumed guilty until proven innocent. It’s a sad day for our country to see this happening.
We do not make light for a second of anyone who has been assaulted or who has experienced some trauma.
But in this particular case we know this person, we believe that the media was very quick–the media as a whole was very quick to jump to conclusions, to believe the other side without really looking at the evidence or lack of evidence in this particular case. And that makes me very sad. It makes me very sad.
McCaleb: I agree. Everything she said is exactly how I feel.
Martin: I think we agree.
McCaleb: It’s been an eye-opener for me.
Harkness: Thank you.
