The White House on Monday blasted out two statements from men who attended college with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, both of whom say they never saw Kavanaugh black out from drinking.
The White House released the statements from Dan Murphy and Chris Dudley, Kavanaugh’s former suitemate and classmate respectively, countering a growing number of Kavanaugh’s old Yale University classmates who have publicly accused the judge of mischaracterizing his past drinking.
{mosads}These classmates in interviews have accused Kavanaugh of being an aggressive and heavy drinker in college, which he denied in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
Both Murphy and Dudley have defended Kavanaugh in previous statements to news outlets.
“I was one of Brett’s roommates or suite-mates for most of our time at Yale,” Murphy wrote in the statement. “Along with our other suite-mates, I not only socialized with Brett, but I was there with him at the end of the night when we came home, and there in the morning when we got up.”
“I never saw Brett black out or not be able to remember the prior evening’s events, nor did I ever see Brett act aggressive, hostile, or in a sexually aggressive manner to women,” he added.
Dudley in his statement said he drank with Kavanaugh in college but “never ever saw Brett blackout.”
“The person sometimes being described in the press is not the Brett Kavanaugh that I have known as a good friend for 35 years,” Dudley wrote. “The person they are trying to describe would not be able to function day to day.”
Murphy’s and Dudley’s accounts stand in contrast to statements from Chad Ludington, a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s who spoke to the FBI on Monday about seeing Kavanaugh “staggering from alcohol consumption.”
Ludington in his recounting accused Kavanaugh of being a “belligerent and aggressive” who drank frequently.
Kavanaugh’s former Yale University roommate Kit Winter also spoke to The Cut, claiming Kavanaugh often became “incoherently drunk” in college.
Murphy has also sided with Kavanaugh in denying an allegation from Deborah Ramirez, the woman accusing Kavanaugh of exposing himself without her consent and shoving his penis in her face during a college party in the 1980s.
Another former Yale classmate, Lynne Brookes, in an interview last week said she saw both Kavanaugh and Dudley drink excessively.
“I studied really hard too,” Brookes told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “I went to Wharton Business School. I went to Yale. I drank to excess many nights with Brett Kavanaugh. The two are not mutually exclusive.”
Kavanaugh’s former drinking habits have come under scrutiny after he claimed before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he has never blacked out from drinking. He stated multiple times during his testimony that he likes beer, but emphasized he did not consume alcohol to excess.
Both Ramirez and Christine Blasey Ford have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct while he was intoxicated. Kavanaugh has categorically denied the accounts.