During ABC’s coverage of the Kavanaugh hearings, correspondent Terry Moran described Kavanaugh as “a man struggling to keep himself from disintegrating, from falling apart on national TV.” He added that Kavanaugh “roared with anger, unjudicious raw anger, and wept, as Cokie pointed out.”
Moran also predicted that Kavanaugh “is never going to walk on a college campus again and teach” and also suggested that he may lose his gig coaching girls’ basketball as a result of the decades-old allegations.
At the same time, Moran admitted that it didn’t have to come to this: “The Democrats had an opportunity to beat him fair and square on the merits, there are good arguments against putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.”
Moran concluded by stating: “So you can see why he does get angry and then to be told, well, your anger’s a temperament problem, it might be fair to vote on that basis but that’s a heck of a Catch 22.”
This wasn't not long after The View co-host Sunny Hostin slammed Kavanaugh’s demeanor at the hearing. According to Hostin: “The tone was all wrong. I thought that he didn’t exhibit the temperament of a judge, certainly not of a Supreme Court Justice.” She also claimed that “many people” have described Kavanaugh as “an aggressive and mean drunk and I will tell you, after seeing that display, I don’t think it’s hard to imagine him as an aggressive drunk, as a mean drunk and so that tone in and of itself will turn off many women.”
Legal analyst Dan Abrams offered a slightly different view and was one that more strongly lined up against Trump Derangement Syndrome. Abrams opined:
I thought that he did exactly what he needed to do at the outset. You could argue maybe too many tears but if you are falsely accused of this sort of crime and this is a crime, what’s being accused, even though this is not a criminal proceeding, I think you have to be angry, you have to be aggressive, he was going after her credibility and her account of what she said.
GOP Strategist Sara Fagen, who used to work with Kavanaugh, agreed: “He had every right to have that reaction. There would be something wrong with him if he didn’t.” She also criticized Hostin’s analysis: “To suggest somehow, in the light of what has happened over the last two weeks, that while he has an emotional reaction at a hearing and well, imagine what him being drunk, he would have been like 37 years ago. Give me a break!”
In the wake of Kavanaugh’s testimony, “journalists” and pundits on other networks offered even more extreme reviews of his performance, with MSNBC describing his opening statement as a “temper tantrum” and referring to the Supreme Court nominee as a “belligerent drunk,” while a CNN panel described him as “unhinged” and “deeply political.” The media obviously lacks self-awareness, the term “unhinged” definitely describes their coverage of the Kavanaugh hearings and nearly everything else that has taken place throughout the Trump administration.
A transcript of the relevant portion of ABC Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing Coverage is below. Click “expand” to read more.
ABC Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing
09/27/18
04:16 PM
COKIE ROBERTS: It really is a divide. Again, on the Twitter accounts, I’m getting a lot of women saying “suppose a woman were crying like that” because yes, there were times that Dr. Ford teared up but he has been weeping and that is something, you know, that women fight against all the time and I think that this is something that men will say “he’s sincere, he’s clearly moved,” and women will say “oh, come on.”GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Cecilia Vega, clearly playing to an audience of one in The White House.
CECILIA VEGA: Oh, when he first came out, that was the only thing I could think of, that this was very much directed to an audience of one and we know that person is watching; President Trump is in the White House watching right now. We are getting our first official reaction from inside the administration, the Communication Advisor Mercedes Schlapp has tweeted “Brett Kavanaugh is a man of highest integrity” and of course, that was right in the middle of his first hour of testimony. Our team is reporting that two sources close to the President say that he was concerned for the fate of this hearing, given Dr. Ford’s compelling testimony, saying that she seemed very compelling and very credible but now that Kavanaugh’s performing well, they believe, they say what’s not to like here and they see even perhaps in spite of the tears, I think, a lot of us thought maybe that would not appeal to this President. It seems to be, to be going over well. I’ve got to say though, in terms of these tears, I am sensing a real split, that those who support the Democrats, those who are opposed to President Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, say that he doesn’t, these tears and this emotion we’re seeing show that he doesn’t have the temperament to be a Supreme Court judge while on the other side, we’re hearing people say that this is the emotion of a slandered person.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Dan, you said he had to come out strong, he sure did.
DAN ABRAMS: Yeah, and look, and I thought that he did exactly what he needed to do at the outset. You could argue maybe too many tears but if you are falsely accused of this sort of crime and this is a crime, what’s being accused, even though this is not a criminal proceeding, I think you have to be angry, you have to be aggressive, he was going after her credibility and her account of what she said. I think he had to do that. I think the one area where he may have gone too far was in his specific blame of, you know, for example, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside, left-wing opposition groups. Even if you believe that, even if he believes that, even if his supporters believe that, he’s still going to be taking a place on the Supreme Court, where, very carefully, when they’re questioning these sort of hearings, they may, they say look, I’m not going to favor one side or the other, say look, I’m not going to favor one side or the other, I’m going to call balls and strikes, that sort of statement should make people maybe a little concerned but bottom line is I thought that he did, I thought that he did quite well.
SUNNY HOSTIN: I thought the tone was all wrong. I thought that he didn’t exhibit the temperament of a judge, certainly not a Supreme Court Justice. He’s had many people say that he was an aggressive and a mean drunk and I will tell you, after seeing that display, I don’t think it’s hard to imagine him as an aggressive drunk, as a mean drunk and so that tone in and of itself will turn off many women. I know it turned me off, we saw him sneering; he was blaming the committee members for unleashing this upon him, rather than addressing the allegations made, not by one, but two but three women who don’t know each other.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Sara Fagen, close friend and colleague, former colleague of Judge Kavanaugh, is that the man you know, the man you saw today?
SARA FAGEN: Well, he certainly was angry and rightfully so. And with respect to the last comments, that’s, it is ridiculous. You stop and think about what he has been through, for him to have any other reaction. The Democrats did do this. They did. They stalled this out in a way that would maximize the impact on him in a negative way to his family. He had every right to have that reaction. There would be something wrong with him if he didn’t.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Sara, you seem to think…
FAGEN: And really, and honestly, I want to say one more thing.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah, go ahead.
FAGEN: To suggest somehow, in the light of what has happened over the last two weeks, that while he has an emotional reaction at a hearing and well, imagine what him being drunk, he would have been like 37 years ago. Give me a break!
STEPHANOPOULOS: The question on the table here, about blaming the Democrats though, Sara, these are three different women who have come forward and according to the testimony today, Dr. Blasey-Ford asked that her name be kept confidential after she sent the letter to Representative Eshoo and Senator Feinstein.
FAGEN: She did ask for it to be kept confidential. She also made a, her first call was to The Washington Post tipline so those things don’t necessarily add up in my view but more importantly than that, Senator Grassley offered to send people to interview her in California and for whatever reason, she evidently was unaware of that. It’s hard to imagine she was unaware of that but she said under oath she was unaware of it so, I, you know, I don’t think it’s, you know, I don’t…someone leaked the letter, Republicans didn’t have the letter so it leads us to believe that some member of some Congresswoman or Senator’s staff who leaked the letter was on the Democratic minority.
ABRAMS: I wonder though, what does it matter what the Democrats did or didn’t do? I mean I understand from a political perspective, it’s important to discuss it but in terms of assessing who’s telling the truth here, whether the Democrats released it earlier or not earlier, it doesn’t seem to be to me to really make much of a difference in terms of assessing credibility does it?
HOSTIN: I don’t think so.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let Sara go, go ahead, Sara.
FAGEN: I was going to say I think that’s actually a very fair question and a very fair point but, you know, and with respect to sort of Judge Kavanaugh’s reaction and emotion to it, you can imagine why he would feel that, you know, he had been very abused by the process as has Dr. Ford, you know, so I do, one of my complaints about it, that, you know, I would have liked to have seen the questions, more questioning from the prosecutor of her and him because I suspected Democrats when they have their turn this afternoon will have a very similar tactic that they had with Dr. Ford, which is that they’ll make statements, they’ll ask him some questions but they’ll mostly make statements.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, Sara Fagen, thanks very much. I want to bring in Terry Moran as well and Terry, right now, we get to this question of credibility, as I said, it’s clear that both Dr. Ford and Brett Kavanaugh believe they are telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, both 100 percent sure about what did or didn’t happen on that day, the question is what the rest of us are going to do with it at this point. I wonder if you might also address the point that Dan and Sunny brought up about whether or not he did do this as charged, did his performance somehow make it more difficult for him to serve on the Court?
(…)
04:23:30 PM
TERRY MORAN: This morning, we saw the terrible emotion and lifelong cost of trauma that Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford was talking about and I think we just saw a man struggling to keep himself from disintegrating, from falling apart on national TV. He roared with anger, unjudicious, raw anger and then wept, as Cokie pointed out, for a long time and because he feels, he knows, look, he’s never going to walk on a college campus again and teach. That’s over for him. He’s, it may be that he’s not going to be able to teach girls’ basketball in the liberal suburbs of Washington, D.C. A lot has been, has been taken from him, perhaps rightly depending on who you believe, but I think we have seen the cost of all this and that is part of the cost of this process. The Democrats had an opportunity to beat him fair and square on the merits, there are good arguments against putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court of the United States. They didn’t make them in a compelling enough way and then there was this knowledge that Senator Feinstein and several staffers had and there were plenty of people that had it because it was leaking. People were leaking it, they were chasing Christine Blasey-Ford around Palo Alto. And the Republicans weren’t told about it, Kavanaugh wasn’t told about it and then bam! So you can see why he does get angry and then to be told well, your anger’s a temperament problem, it might be fair to vote on that basis but that’s a heck of a catch 22.
STEPHANOPOULOS: There’s no way, there’s no way out for him in that, in that trap.
