During the third day of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Kennedy (R-La.) questioned Kavanaugh about “getting into trouble” at the elite all-boys school Georgetown Prep, eliciting nervous laughter.
Dodging the question, Kavanaugh told Kennedy that at Georgetown Prep, “I had a lot of friends, I’ve talked a lot about my friends. And they’ve been here. So it was very formative.”
When Kennedy pressed his question about “trouble,” Kavanaugh replied, “That’s encompassed by the friends, I think.”
Kennedy concluded by saying he’s decided to not ask Kavanaugh whether his underage friends were “sneaking a few beers past Jesus.” Kavanaugh shook his head, said “Hey,” and giggled again in response someone off-mike saying “I want you [Kennedy] to [ask Kavanaugh]”).
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) took the microphone, saying, “I for one am grateful for the senator’s self-restraint.”
It is unknown what motivated Kennedy’s questions at the time, although Kavanaugh’s close friend and classmate Mike G. Judge recorded in his book Wasted the binge drinking that dominated those years at Georgetown Prep. Similarly, Kavanaugh’s yearbook entry made repeated references to keg parties and vomiting.
This Senate hearing exchange is not the only Kavanaugh alluded to the binge drinking in high school and college he and his friends engaged in as being something to be ashamed of.
In April 2014, at a Yale Law School banquet for the right-wing Federalist Society:
"I am approaching the 24th anniversary of my graduation from this school. That means I am approaching the 24th anniversary of my organizing 30 classmates in a bus to go to Boston ... only for us to return falling out of the bus onto the front steps of Yale Law School at about 4:45 a.m."
"Fortunately for all of us, we had a motto: What happens on the bus stays on the bus. Tonight, you can modify that to what happens at the Fed Soc after-party stays at the Fed Soc after-party." He wen on to talk about a time when one of his friends drunkenly fell into and smashed a bar table.
In March 2015, at a Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law speech, he extemporized:
"By coincidence, three classmates of mine at Georgetown Prep were graduates of this law school in 1990. And are really really good friends of mine: [Arizona Cardinals president] Mike Bidwill, Don Urgo and Phil Merkle. And they were good friends of mine then. And are still good friends of mine; as recently as this weekend, when we were all on email together."
"But fortunately, we had a good saying that we’ve held firm to to this day, as the Dean [Dan Attridge, former Alberto Gonzales aide & corporate lawyer] was reminding me before the talk, which is, 'What happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep.' That’s been a good thing for all of us, I think."
After the hearing, it was revealed that professor Christine Blasey Ford, a graduate of the nearby all-girls Holton-Arms School, had informed members of Congress that Kavanaugh and Judge had sexually assaulted her while they were all in high school.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a 1971 graduate of Holton-Arms School, could be the deciding vote in favor in Kavanaugh.