9/24/18: George Packer, writing in The New Yorker, captures the essence of the Trump administration in five words: “Only snakes and sycophants survive.”
____________________
“Only snakes and sycophants survive.”
George Packer
____________________
*
JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH appears on Fox News to interview. It’s conservatives’ safe place and the Judge wants to make clear he deserves to be confirmed to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Why? Because he was a virgin in high school and for many years after. I think that’s the point he’s trying to make.
Unfortunately for Judge Kavanaugh, he has been accused of sexually abusing a young woman back in the day.
Host Martha MacCallum gives him a good old Fox “going over.” She thanks the nominee, accompanied by his wife, for coming. “What made you decide to speak out before the hearing on Thursday? Judge Kavanaugh?”
“I am looking for a fair process, a process where I can
defend my integrity and clear my name. And all I’m asking for is fairness and
that I’d be heard in this process,” the Judge intones.
 |
Sen. Majority Leader McConnell has already decided Kavanaugh is innocent. On Fox News, they won't bring that up. |
This is Fox, so MacCallum serves up a creampuff for his wife. “Ashley, what has this been like for you the past couple of weeks? I know you’ve had death threats and all kinds of things coming your way. What – how does that feel?”
Mrs. Kavanaugh admits the confirmation process has been “incredibly difficult. It’s harder than we imagined.”
One reason it’s harder, is that one woman has come forward to claim her husband sexually assaulted her when she was fifteen and he was a high school senior. A second accuser says Kavanaugh exposed himself during a drunken dorm room party at Yale, during their freshman year.
McCallum asks the Judge about that.
“I never did any such thing – never did any such thing,” he exclaims. “The other people alleged to be there don’t recall any such thing. If such as thing had a happened, it would’ve been the talk of campus. The women I knew in college and the men I knew in college said that it’s unconceivable that I could’ve done such a thing.”
Did he attack the fifteen-year-old, when he was seventeen, McCallum inquires?
“No. I had never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not ever. I’ve always treated women with dignity and respect.” He cites a letter signed by 65 women who knew him in high school who all say he was a great guy.
(I am wondering: What guy in high school knows 65 women well
enough for them to vouch for his purity – particularly a guy who went to an all-men’s private prep school. But let’s set that aside.)
“Let me ask Ashley, when this came out what did you say to your husband?” McCallum inquires. “Did you question him and have moments where you wondered if he was telling you the truth?”
“No. I know Brett. I’ve known him for 17 years. And this is not at all [in] character; it’s really hard to believe. He’s decent, he’s kind, he’s good. I know his heart. This is not consistent with – with Brett.”
(I am doing the math in my head. MacCallum is not. Or she is,
but this is Fox News and she’s hoping no one watching realizes the math doesn’t
work. That would mean the alleged
incidents occurred decades before Kavanaugh met his wife.)
Is the Judge sure he never did anything bad at Yale?
Not a chance, the Judge insists.
Judge Kavanaugh turns to the embarrassing “Virgin Defense.”
What about the allegations of excessive drinking, MacCallum wonders? Could Kavanaugh have been so drunk in high school, for example, he couldn’t remember what he’d done?
Kavanaugh admits there were parties – which is pretty much like admitting you went to high school at all:
And the drinking age was 18, and
yes, the seniors were legal and had beer there. And yes, people might have had
too many beers on occasion and people generally in high school – I think all of
us have probably done things we look back on in high school and regret or
cringe a bit, but that’s not what we’re talking about.
We’re talking about an
allegation of sexual assault. I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. I did not
have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school
or for many years thereafter. And the girls from the schools I went to and I
were friends…
If MacCallum is surprised by such a response, she’s not showing it. She merely asks for clarification: “So you’re saying that through all these years that are in question, you were a virgin [emphasis added, here and throughout]?”
“That’s correct,” he says.
“Never had sexual intercourse with anyone in high school?” she wonders.
“Correct.”
“And through what years in college since we’re probing into your personal life here?” she probes.
“Many years after. I’ll leave it at that.”
What about having the F.B.I. investigate the new allegations, MacCallum asks? “Ashley? And then I’ll ask you that, Brett.”
“I mean, I’ve said all along and Ashley, too, I want to be heard,” the Judge responds, cutting off Mrs. Kavanaugh. “I was first interviewed last Monday, the day after the allegation appeared by the committee staff under penalty of felony, and I denied this categorically and unequivocally and I said twice during that, I said, ‘I want a hearing tomorrow,’ last Tuesday, a week ago.”
MacCallum wonders if it bothers the Judge to hear that
Democratic senators have already said
they believe the accusations. “When you hear United States senators who
are making judgments, final judgments, what does that make you think about the
presumption of innocence in this country?”
This is good Fox News “journalism,” signaling viewers that Democrats are unfair and don’t believe in the “presumption of innocence,” a hallmark of justice.
You know MacCallum isn’t going to ask about the comments of President Trump, who has already said the second accuser, the woman at Yale, “has nothing” and that the Democrats are running a con-job.
“In America, we have fairness,” the Judge replies:
We hear from both sides. I’ve
spent my life in the judiciary, the – our judicial system, and part of the
judicial systems as I’ve said during my first – my hearing was process
protection. That’s what judges believe that’s what our system was built on, the
rule of law, about fair process.
MacCallum isn’t taking any chances. She wants to send obvious signals to viewers about what they should think.
“Let me ask you this,” she says. “Separately from these allegations, is it fair to judge someone on something they did before they were 18 years old? When they were 17 years old? Should anything they did then follow them later in life, or should it enter into any decisions made about them later in life?”
Kavanaugh replies: “What I’m here to do is tell you the truth, and this allegation from 36 years ago is not – ”
“But separately from what you’re being accused of just as a judge, if you were looking at this case as a part of what you’re going through and someone said, ‘This person did that at 17 years old,’ is it fair to judge them on something that when they’re in their 50s, 60s?” MacCallum presses.
If she’s doing her job, the knuckleheads watching at home will start nudging each other and saying, “Naw, that ain’t right. Why this good Christian fellow, if he tried to rape a woman back then, well, would you rather have some commie liberal on the Supreme Court?”
Kavanaugh assures her he’s a good person.
“So in terms of the process now and what happens now, when you look at how all of this – where all this generated from, do you have thoughts?” MacCallum inquires. “Is this about Roe v. Wade? Is this about people who initially right off the bat said they wanted to see you never take the spot on the Supreme Court? Where’s all this coming from?”
Again, she and her handlers at Fox want that idea to sink in. This is another witch hunt, they hope viewers will decide.
Kavanaugh says he just wants a “fair process.”
MacCallum tries again to get him on record, saying he’s being persecuted. He says he wants a “fair process.”
MacCallum tries it a third time: “You don’t want to talk about where you think this is coming from?”
“What would you say if this happened to them?”
Watching at home myself, I want to shout at the television: “It’s coming from a woman who has nothing to gain, who says this choir boy virgin tried to strip off her clothes when she was fifteen! Come on, MacCallum, ask the Judge or his wife, ‘You have daughters, what would you say if this happened to them?’”
The Judge replies again, “I just want an opportunity, a fair process where I can defend my integrity.”
Speaking of closed minds, three days before this interview aired, Milksop Mitch McConnell had assured Christian conservatives that Kavanaugh was going to be confirmed.
That’s not a presumption of innocence.
That’s a right-wing assumption.
A real journalist would at least bring it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment