Media

Kavanaugh book authors dismayed about Democrats ‘rush to judgment’ on impeachment calls

by Joe Concha - 09/18/19 2:26 PM ET

The two New York Times reporters who wrote a book containing new allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said they are dismayed over “the rush to judgment” by some 2020 Democratic candidates in calling for his impeachment.

Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, the authors of “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation,” made the comments in an interview on the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery.”

“It’s dismaying to see the rush to judgment,” said Kelly.

“We definitely have been grappling with it, for sure,” said co-author Pogrebin.“There was a sense going into this that nuance doesn’t make headlines … that people were going to pull stuff out.”

{mosads}The two authors sparked a media storm after publishing an essay based on their book in The New York Times op-ed page over the weekend.

The piece contained the new sexual misconduct allegation, sparking several 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); South Bend., Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, to call on Kavanaugh to be impeached.

But the essay initially omitted that friends of a woman involved in the incident detailed in the new allegation had said the woman did not recall the incident.

“People saw what they wanted to see before learning any of the facts, or didn’t even make much of an effort to pay attention to the facts,” Pogrebin added.

At the same time, Kelly and Pogrebin acknowledged there were “errors in the process” of publishing that essay that resulted in Times editors removing “significant” information.

“Obviously, it was an oversight,” said Kelly. “We corrected it as soon as we could, added the information in. There’s an editor’s note explaining that we regret this. It’s unfortunate, and just speaking for Robin and myself, there’s no attempt to conceal information from our readers.”

The two reporters had written that a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s said that he had witnessed the now-justice expose himself at a party before other students pushed Kavanaugh’s genitals into the hand of a female student, apparently without her consent.

Tags 2020 Democratic field Brett Kavanaugh Elizabeth Warren Kavanaugh sexual misconduct allegations Pete Buttigieg