The authors of a new book about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said they are disappointed in the "rush to judgment" by 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who have called for Kavanaugh's impeachment.
"It's dismaying to see the rush to judgment," said The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation coauthor Katie Kelly in an interview with Yahoo News's podcast Skullduggery.
"We definitely have been grappling with it for sure," added coauthor Robin Pogrebin, in reference to the fallout following the New York Times excerpt. "There was a sense going into this that nuance doesn't make headlines, ... that people were going to pull stuff out.... 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."
The duo provoked controversy on Sunday when the Times published an excerpt from their book which alleged a friend of Kavanaugh "pushed" Kavanaugh's "penis into the hand of a female student" against her will. The excerpt neglected to mention, however, the woman in question was not interviewed for the story and her friends say she does not recall the incident. The Times issued a correction Sunday night, admitting to the omission of fact.
Before the update, a number of 2020 candidates, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, called for Kavanaugh's impeachment.
After the story was updated, Kelly and Pogrebin blamed editors and the social media team at the Times for the mistakes in the piece. The two also said on Skullduggery they had no intention of spreading false information, calling the story "unfortunate."
"Obviously, it was an oversight," Kelly said. "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."
Kavanaugh declined to be interviewed for the book, according to Kelly and Pogrebin.