Politics

‘We Actually Felt Like We Were Doing Right By Him’: NYT Reporter Suggests Kavanaugh Book Paints Him In A Good Light

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New York Times reporter Robin Pogrebin said Tuesday morning that she “felt like we were doing right” by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in a recent book that details allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

An article published Sunday by Pogrebin and Kate Kelly accused Kavanaugh of putting his penis in Deborah Ramirez’s face. The article, prefacing their book “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation,” received pushback because it omitted the fact that the alleged victim did not remember the incident. Pogrebin suggested Tuesday that this may have been because Ramirez was too drunk.

Pogrebin added that her and Kelly “felt like we were doing right by him [Kavanaugh]” and suggested the book details how good of a person Kavanaugh is. She spoke on “Mornings on the Mall” with Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter.

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“I think if you do look at our book, which is out today, you’ll see that our ultimate conclusion in which we lay out in really candid detail in the end is that these things likely happened when Brett was a young person, but that he’s been a better man in the last thirty-six years,” Pogrebin told Coglianese and Walter.

“Our reporting did not turn up a trail of women in his wake, as you often find with these “me too” stories, several of which I’ve done for the New York Times … that was not the case with him,” she continued. “By all accounts, and so many people we talked to, an upstanding citizen, a church-going family man, someone who has given back to his community, he volunteers, he’s obviously coached his girl’s teams.”

Pogrebin also mentioned Kavanaugh’s professional work, noting that he’s “been widely admired on both sides of the aisle” and “has a much more nuanced record” in his many years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

“There’s a much fuller picture here which is what we wanted to portray,” Pogrebin said. “This is a nuanced story – maybe this was youthful behavior that he had.”