Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) on Monday dodged a question about whether Democrats have evidence that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh blacked out from alcohol in high school and college.
CNN host Jake Tapper asked Leahy about Democratic senators focusing on Kavanaugh's drinking history and references to beer during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
"I hear a lot of Democrats talking about how much Kavanaugh drank and whether he was misleading in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about that," Tapper asked. "Did Democrats have anything other than their suspicions that he blacked out or ever had any memory loss? Is there any evidence to that? Or is it just suspicion?"
Leahy immediately pivoted, instead discussing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of drunkenly pinning her to a bed, groping her, and trying to take off her clothes at a high school party in the early 1980s. The Democratic senator said that he believed Ford when she testified before the judiciary committee last week, adding that he would have believed her if she was a witness in a trial.
"Judge Kavanaugh has not been forthcoming and many other times when he's testified," Leahy added. "Certainly, he was not forthcoming in talking about the stolen emails, stolen by Manny Miranda from the Democratic Senate members, and he wasn't credible in answers to both Republicans and Democrats on that."
"I must admit, I come in there worried about the man's credibility to begin with, and while he put on an act, which "Saturday Night Live" enjoyed satirizing, there were a lot of people who thought that his testimony last week was just that, an act," Leahy continued. "He never answered the direct questions about what happened."
Kavanaugh testified to the judiciary committee on Thursday that he never blacked out from drinking alcohol.
"I drank beer with my friends. Almost everyone did. Sometimes I had too many beers," Kavanaugh said. "Sometimes others did. I liked beer. I still like beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone."
In response to his testimony, multiple former classmates at Yale University claimed that Kavanaugh was not truthful about his drinking habits.
"I can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that he ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth," Chad Ludington, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh, told CNN.