Brett Kavanaugh Pretends He's Not a Partisan Hack

Brett Kavanaugh was ceremonially sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court on Monday night, and following the ceremony, pretended that he wasn’t already a hugely compromised partisan hack.

The ceremony was just for show, as Kavanaugh took his official vows in a private ceremony shortly after he was confirmed on Saturday, but both Kavanaugh and the president milked it for all it was worth in front of a clapping and cheering crowd of Republicans (and a thoroughly over-it looking Ruth Bader Ginsberg).

President Donald Trump spent his introductory remarks both blasting the Democrats, apologizing to Kavanaugh, and leaning into his statements that Kavanaugh’s accusers lied.

“On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure,” Trump said. “Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception.”

“What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process,” Trump said. “In our country, a man or woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.”

Again: job interview, not a trial, buddy!

Mitch McConnell looked on adoringly throughout (that’s the back of his head in the lead image), beaming when Trump gave him a shout out. “I think that’s the biggest hand he’s ever received,” Trump quipped afterward, before thanking Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and the rest of the Republicans on the committee (and none of the Democrats). Oh, and Susan Collins.

Kavanaugh, for his part, did his very best to pretend that somehow, after his open partisanship during his confirmation hearings, he would be a fair and impartial judge, essentially echoing the points he made in a bloated Wall Street Journal op-ed the night before a key procedural vote last Friday.

“My goal is to be a great justice, for all Americans, and for all of America,” Kavanaugh said, right after thanking all of his friends, like all of the Republican Senators who worked to ram his confirmation through, and George W. Bush. “I will work very hard to achieve that goal. I was not appointed to serve one party or one interest, but one nation.”