Congress, Politics, Society

North Carolina Professor Releases Statement To FBI Contradicting Kavanaugh On College Drinking

thumbnailCharles Ludington, a college friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, released a statement that directly contradicted the testimony of the judge on this drinking in college.  Ludington told The Washington Post that he gave a statement to the FBI that Kavanaugh was “belligerent and aggressive” as a drunk in college and once threw a beer in the face of someone who insulted him.  He is the third college friend who described Kavanaugh as a belligerent drinker in college.

Ludington is an associate professor at North Carolina State University and stated that “When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive. On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.”

Former classmates Lynne Brookes and Elizabeth Swisher have also given accounts similar to Ludington’s statement.

Ludington has taught at North Carolina State University since 2004 and, according to his bio on the university’s website, Ludington specializes in northern European history. He has also taught at the Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow at University College Cork and the Universite de Bordeaux-Michel Montaigne in France.

Ludington earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale in 1987 and a Doctor of Philosophy and History in 2003 from Columbia University.

He also played basketball for Yale and briefly played professionally in Europe in Paris and Spain.  He has published two books: The Politics of Wine in Britain: A New Cultural History (2013) and A Long Shadow: The Story of an Ulster-Irish Family (2016).

The drinking question could be deemed relevant in two ways.  It could taken as reaffirming the description of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.  It could also be taken as evidence of perjury by Kavanaugh who denied such excessive drinking.  The latter raises a tough question on the use of such an issue as drinking in college should be determinative in a Supreme Court confirmation.  Clearly perjury is perjury but these are matters of opinions on how Kavanaugh acted as a college student when drunk.

What do you think?

274 thoughts on “North Carolina Professor Releases Statement To FBI Contradicting Kavanaugh On College Drinking”

    1. Are you under the impression that all confirmation hearings should remain open forever as long as anybody is willing to make further allegations against a nominee? If so, why?

  2. “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy.”

    – Ben Franklin

  3. The Surprising Drinking Habits of Our Founding Fathers

    George Washington

    We’re taught to think of Washington as the stoic, sober, wooden-toothed patriarch of our nation, but nothing could be further from the truth. Washington was known for tying one on with about four bottles of wine and dancing the night away. After his presidency, he opened one of the largest whiskey distilleries in the country at Mount Vernon that produced 11,000 gallons in 1799, the year he died.

    John Adams

    It’s tough to say, but John Adams may have been the biggest drinker of the Sons of Liberty. He began every day with a draft of hard cider before breakfast. He drank three glasses of Madeira, a wine fortified with rum, every night before bed. During the bad old days under British taxation, Adams wrote to his wife, “I am getting nothing that I can drink, and I believe I shall be sick from this cause alone.” He died at 90. Of old age.

    Paul Revere

    In 1775, Paul Revere famously rode out of Boston at midnight to warn his fellow patriots that British were planning a march on Lexington. But how did the word spread so fast and effectively? Because the people he was warning were at the many taverns at which he stopped on the way. According to his own journals, he may have had a few toots before the ride was over.

    Thomas Jefferson

    Our third president was, beyond being a master of statecraft, a very serious connoisseur of wine. During the Revolution, on diplomatic missions to France, he toured the vineyards of Bordeaux extensively. As president, he imported more than 20,000 bottles for his personal collection. Despite this, he insisted he was not a drunk: “…you are not to conclude I am a drinker. My measure is a perfectly sober one of 3 or 4 glasses at dinner, and not a drop at any other time. But as to those 3 or 4 glasses I am very fond.”

    Benjamin Franklin

    Though he may have been the most temperate among his fellow Founders, Ben Franklin said, “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy.” A brewer and distiller in his own right, he’s also famous for coming up with The Drinker’s Dictionary, over 200 euphemisms for getting tore up. Among my favorites: “Piss’d in the Brook,” “Wamble Crop’d,” and “Been too free with Sir John Strawberry.”

    Samuel Adams

    Among the many lines on his resumé, one of them was brewer. Specifically, Sam Adams was a maltster in his father’s brewery, the guy who made the malts that would eventually become beer. He was also a master politician, and is credited with organizing the Revolution from inside New England taverns by getting would-be Minute Men mad as hell over the high price of rum.

    John Hancock

    Before he ever put quill to parchment as the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, Hancock smuggled more booze into the colonies than most anyone else. He ended up being sued by the British government for unpaid taxes to the tune of about $7 million in today’s money. This is how revolutions start, people.

    1. Hey. HEY. John Adams was my great-great-7x-grandfather. I resent this entirely. Mainly because I can’t afford to drink anywhere near as much as he did.

  4. HUGE:

    Blasey Ford Co-Authored Paper on “Creating Artificial Situations” Via Hypnosis Used To

    Retrieve Memories

    “A professor and writer for The Federalist retrieved an academic study authored in part by Christine Blasey Ford on hypnosis, memory retrieval and “creating artificial situations.”

    “One of Christine Ford Blasey’s research articles in 2008 included a study in which participants were TAUGHT SELF-HYPNOSIS & noted hypnosis is used to retrieve important memories “AND CREATE ARTIFICAL [sic] SITUATIONS,” said Margot Cleveland on Twitter.
    take our poll – story continues below

    (Trending: Woman Who Confronted Flake In Elevator Runs Soros-Funded Organization)

    Ford’s internet history was wiped clean before she made allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh stemming from an alleged incident 36 years ago.

    The paper was titled “Meditation With Yoga, Group Therapy With Hypnosis, and Psychoeducation for Long-Term Depressed Mood: A Randomized Pilot Trial.” Ford is listed as an author using her maiden name, Blasey.

    – Big League Politics

    1. The purpose of the study was to treat depression, not create memories. The source of the article is the Federalist Society which recommended Kavenaugh.

      1. bettykath – there was extensive research into repressed memories turning out to be implanted false memories in the 1980s and 1990s. I suggest you look it up before dismissing facts.

  5. Belligerentt drinker in collelge. Or however ya spull it. So what? He is not a bad drinker now. Next they will talk about his kindergarten antics. How was Bill Clinton in college or high school? Or that Blummenthal guy who lied about serving in the military in Vietnam?
    Democrats are demogods.
    I am changing party after this. By that I mean political party. I do not like this judge but I would vote for him to be confirmed.
    Those who have lied in the past should not be allowed to vote on his confirmation. That Blummenthal liar is one of the worst.
    Liar, liar, your pants are on fire!

    1. there’s things to criticize about Kav but we never got to that substance; it was all just slander and smear.

      so that’s why I steadfastly support him, just to spite the self appointed purity police in the Senate.

      now they say the police questioned him. jeez, that’s an offense in itself, yes? so much for all that pious nonsense Dems have been saying about the “rights of the accused” all these years! suddenly they forget

      1. She can’t name her rapists because she was drugged, but Kavenaugh was outside the room as was common when the boys gathered for the gang rape.

        2. ABC commented that she has changed her story from her written account.

          She claims to have attended at least 10 gang rapes, going on nearly every weekend. She said nothing to no one. Made no report. Made not a move to warn the other girls that they were going to be raped. All the girls never heard a word of this amazingly well kept secret, and they kept going to the parties and getting raped. This drugging and raping happened in the open, because Swetnick saw them put drugs in the drinks and line up patiently to gang rape the girls. But word never got out. The girls kept coming. I guess Swetnick just enjoyed the show, because she kept coming to the gang rape parties.

          Then, amazingly, she drank a drugged drink and got gang raped herself. But she didn’t make a police report. Didn’t go to the hospital with massive internal injuries. No counseling. Just, merrily carried on with her day. Did this occur at the last gang rape party she went to, or did she continue to go to more gang rape parties?

          That’s some heroine standing up for truth and justice ya got there.

          1. Also, if she couldn’t identify her rapists, in the room with her, because she was drugged, then how could she identify Kavanaugh whom she claimed was outside the room?

            She seems to have some very dark, twisted fantasies about Kavanaugh and gang rape.

  8. I think we should decide how we are going to deal with high school and college behavior. Certainly, criminal behavior should be dealt with one way. Other kinds of behavior, including drinking a lot in high school and college, might be in a different category. We have to allow that not all excellent candidates for high office are tee-totalers who stayed home every weekend. Most of us, as I believe Judge Kavanaugh is like most of us, to quote scripture, ‘When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” There MUST be some allowance and understanding of this.

  9. Any reasonable interpretation of the advice and consent clause to the United States Constitution would not allow for the Kavanaugh fiasco, nor would it allow for silly Mitch McConnell’s utter rationalization regarding the reasons for keeping a Supreme Court seat open for the better part of a year.

    In short, virtually everyone in the United States Sensate follows the Constitution — except when they don’t feel like it.

    And virtually no one in the American public has called them on it in a bi-partisan manner.

    Congratulations America. You get what you deserve.

    You might claim I’m up on my high horse. I didn’t have to jump very high.

  10. Any reasonable interpretation of the advice and consent clause to the United States Constitution would not allow for the Kavanaugh fiasco, nor would it allow for silly Mitch McConnell’s utter rationalization regarding the reasons for keeping a Supreme Court seat open for the better part of a year.

    In short, virtually everyone in the United States Sensate follows the Constitution — except when they don’t feel like it.

    And virtually no one in the American public has called them on it in a bi-partisan manner.

    Congratulations America. You get what you deserve.

    You might claim I’m up on my high horse. I didn’t have to jump very high.

      1. Oooooh, I get it. Now Kavanaugh should not be approved because he is white, male, and well off? So racism, misandry, and class bigotry is now approved barriers to the Supreme Court.

        Got it. No white, male, rich Democrats need ever run for public office ever again. After all, be the example you want to make for the world.

  12. Remember the so-called “smoking gun” that Kavanaugh had perjured himself when he claimed he got into Yale by busting his butte? He was accused of being a legacy student because his grandfather went to Yale.

    Well, as it turns out, his grandfather went to Yale as an undergraduate. Yale’s Admissions Office has stated that this would have no bearing on Brett Kavanaugh’s application to Yale Law School.

    Think the Far Left will get their facts straight? Because I think the fabrication horse is off and running and won’t be caught by any facts.

    Remember the story that people who knew him in Yale claimed he lied about blacking out? Turns out no one actually saw him in a blackout state.

    Oops. Don’t let facts get in the way of savaging a conservative and his family.

    1. At the time of this writing, there are over 3.8 million hits on GOOGLE regarding Kavanaugh lying about being a Yale legacy student.

      This is how a lie becomes accepted at face value, repeated over and over again until everybody knows it’s true.

      Only, it isn’t.

      1. those stats are fake news. silicon valley is unequalled magic when it comes to faking out the public. do not believe this fake news or be deterred. lies will now be the currency of the day. time to get tough, get together, get aggressive. time for Republicans to grow up or go home.

      2. Haha. You mean the way that Pravda Faux News and the day glo bozo conduct themselves? It’s about time you realized it; better late than never.

        this is to “but when people who look like me lie through their teeth, it’s kinda cute” karen – cindie

        1. Still cannot heel-toe your way through an adult discussion without resorting to ad hominem, I see.

          Why are you so uncomfortable rationally discussing facts? If you have nothing substantive to say, you can always try to read more and expand your mind until you are more confident in the tough conversations.

          1. Excellent. You misunderstand my motive here. I’m not trying to “convince” you, show you the “true” way, point out the error of your ways, or “debate” you (as if). I want you, your ilk, the gullible rubes, dupes, klan wannabees, pocket-traitors and grifters on the make to just keep doin you. I know your types, who don’t understand the difference between facts and opinions, the distinction between evidence and conspiracy-paranoid yammering, or why science is superior to fervent wishes–just to name a few. In the mean time, I will continue to point out the nonsensical and ridiculous beliefs and thought processes that your types engage in, by using … wait for it … ridicule. So tune back in to hannity, and “like” some more “why can’t we go back to the good ole days” prattle posted by your little echo chamber wags on reddit or wherever you people congregate. In the mean time, authentic American patriots who revere our beloved country will save it from you and your ilk’s negligence, intolerance, superstition and ignorance.

            this is to “but I prefer fox & friends over hannity” karen – cindie

    2. i applauded her Tabarok’s apt use of the word gleischaultung

      a word that implies a totalitarian synchronization of the public to political party standards

      that’s what the Dems are doing.

      understand this Republicans. Force and cunning do not play games with reason.
      They can only be met with superior force and cunning.

      The time for reasoning is over. There is only the election before us. An emboldened Dem party will mean more unreasoning totalitarian thought crimes and endless false accusations.

      A successful midterm can mean a return to reason., Or a socalled blue wave will be a tidal wave like the one that whacked Indonesia, chaos and destruction that makes previous Dem mischief seem tame.

      The time to split wigs approaches,
      when things jump off will you be ready?
      Get out there and vote.

      And any fool of a man that votes for Dems is a self hating pansy

      1. We need a General Patton. Republicans have been ineffective dealing with this political warfare. They cater to the opposing side. This rape allegation was clearly a ploy. Now it’s his high school yearbook, drinking in college, throwing ice at some guy 30 years ago in a bar, how he got into Yale, and finally, it’s because he’s a well off, white, male Republican. They acquiesced on the FBI investigation but that’s already been blown off. Now they are throwing all they can. It was never about Ford or the FBI. That case had no merit, and they knew it at the time. It was a delay tactic, using Ford as a pawn, so that they could do what they have done. Adults are actually questioning a Supreme Court nominee about high school fart jokes in all seriousness.

        Call it what it is. War. No act is too low. No racist attack is too outrageous. Race and gender plus Republican are proof of guilt. We can’t win if we don’t fight effectively.

        Republicans have always lost the communication war. We do not reach non conservatives in any meaningful way. So they are left to get their news from MSNBC, walking away thinking Kavanaugh ran a gang rape ring. That’s not the fault of MSNBC; it’s ours. We offer no alternative. People who don’t tune into conservative news have little chance of learning how hateful and intolerant their party is. #WalkAway videos do more outreach than conservatives do, and that content is created by former Democrats. See, they STILL beat conservatives at media outreach even after they’ve left the plantation of the Democratic Party.

        I have had quite enough of this hate and viciousness. It’s time to fight back.

        1. refrain from being hateful and vicious and you wouldn’t have any hate and viciousness.

          this is to “but hannity said all democrats are meanies” karen – cindie

    3. “Remember the story that people who knew him in Yale claimed he lied about blacking out? Turns out no one actually saw him in a blackout state.” -Yep. Karen, again.

      Karen, Karen, Karen…

      This was posted as a reply to one of your comments elsewhere:

      “During a blackout, you may function normally. People around you may not notice anything different about your behavior. You might do the things you normally do, such as eat dinner, wash dishes, or watch television. But later you have no memory of doing them.”

      The following from the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health sums it up nicely, IMO.

      “Blackouts Caused by Alcohol or Drugs”

      https://www.uwhealth.org/health/topic/special/blackouts-caused-by-alcohol-or-drugs/sig263659.html

      The article:

      A blackout means not being able to remember what happened when you were drinking or using drugs. Blackouts are not the same as passing out. Passing out occurs when you lose consciousness. You don’t pass out when you have a drug or alcohol blackout. In a blackout, you lose short-term memories. A blackout is a type of amnesia.

      During a blackout, you may function normally. People around you may not notice anything different about your behavior. You might do the things you normally do, such as eat dinner, wash dishes, or watch television. But later you have no memory of doing them.

      Many people who have blackouts aren’t worried about them. They might remember feeling good but be unable to remember what they did. This is called euphoric recall. Other people find blackouts very disturbing and seek treatment because of them.

      You may pass out during a blackout. This can be caused by the effects of the alcohol or drugs, a head injury from a fall when you were drunk or high, or a seizure. You probably will not remember hurting yourself or having a seizure.

      If you think you have blackouts, don’t drive or operate any kind of machinery. Talk to your doctor about your blackouts. You might need to be tested for other problems that can cause loss of consciousness.

      Related Information

      Current as of: October 9, 2017

      Author: Healthwise Staff

      Medical Review: E. Gregory Thompson, MD – Internal Medicine & Adam Husney, MD – Family Medicine & Martin J. Gabica, MD – Family Medicine & Kathleen Romito, MD – Family Medicine & Peter Monti, PhD – Alcohol and Addiction & Christine R. Maldonado, PhD – Behavioral Health

      1. Anonymous – I have seen people drink themselves into an alcoholic blackout and to people who know them, there are obvious changes in behavior. The alcoholic will not notice it, but his friends or drinking buddies will.

        1. Paul said: “The alcoholic will not notice it, but his friends or drinking buddies will.”

          **May** is the operative word.

          The alcoholic will not notice it, but his friends or drinking buddies **may**.

          And they may not.

                1. A person experiencing either a blackout [en bloc amnesia] or a brownout [fragmentary amnesia] can remember roughly two minutes of past experience at a stretch. That’s usually enough to carry on a halfway intelligent conversation with people so long as nobody reminds the blacked-out person of what he or she said, say, three minutes ago, or so. If the other people involved in the conversation are continually rehashing the conversation that took place five, ten, forty minutes ago or more, then the person experiencing the blackout will probably be exposed as a temporary amnesiac.

                  P. S. Things get really interesting when the “confabulation” starts kicking in.

                  1. L4Yoga enables David Benson, R. Lien and Marky Mark Mark – answer the question. What is your personal experience with blackouts?

                  2. Late4Dinner:

                    Almost everyone drank in college. You cannot prove a negative.

                    I could accuse you of being a blackout drunk in college, and therefore unfit for your current job and any proposed advancement, ever. You might say, no you didn’t. You never had any gaps in memory or woke up not knowing where you were or what you did the night before. Prove it. Prove you never blacked out. Prove you had no memory gaps.

                    Drinking + race + gender + Republican = guilt.

                    This is not rational. It’s not intended to be rational. It’s just more political terrorism against an innocent man. It deserves nothing but disdain and condemnation.

                    May you one day find yourself treated this way. People without morals or empathy cannot understand injustice until they experience it themselves. Then they may become crusaders. Blessed are the just who found their compass without their own persecution.

  13. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”

    ― Alexander Fraser Tytler
    _____________________

    “Tytler’s Dictatorship”

    The 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th amendments have finally put America into Tytler’s

    selfish/apathy/dependence phases; on its way back into bondage.

  14. Lawrence H. Tribe writes “All the Ways Justice Kavanaugh Would Have to Recuse Himself” in TNYT.

    Just a thumb tiddler.

    1. After Thursday’s debacle that is now true of his Circuit Court seat as well. Time to start impeachment proceedings?

      2. if they didnt impeach alex kozinski for his horrendous behavior that everyone knew about, um, then they won’t impeach Kav for whatever he supposedly did 35 years ago

        look that up and see how quickly things have changed for the choirboy requirements on article III judges

        i hope all the article III judges are scared out of their wits by this. they should be.

      3. Yes.

        Impeach 90% of the judicial branch which has usurped the power of the legislative and executive branches, “legislated and executed from the bench,” and not declared all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.

        Central planning, control of the means of production (i.e. regulation), redistribution of wealth and social engineering, in any and all forms, are immutably unconstitutional and must have been declared such by the judicial branch.
        __________________________________________

        “[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”

        – Alexander Hamilton

      4. Well, that’s the plan with Trump. Don’t like Democracy? Try to impose your will through impeachment!

  15. The only really specific statement Kavanaugh did regarding his drinking is that he never had a memory loss, a blackout. People seem to have confused this for passing out, staggering, whatever. None of those witnesses contradicting him have showed that he had a memory loss due drinking. Blackout varies from individual to individual, females tend to have alcohol induced blackouts more easily, maybe that is why those women think he must have reached blackout levels.

    1. i dont know what that is. I can’t remember what i had lunch the day before most times and i almost never drink

      what’s the point of all that, just more nitpicking, from sodden hypocrites.

      I know a thing or two about DC and the social habits are anything but sober for the lot of them.

  17. I find Ford unreliable. However, Kavanaugh appears to have lie extensively, under oath. Of particularly note below are the ways in which Kavanaugh’s own calendar, which he has presented as an alibi, undermine some of his claims:

    https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/09/how-we-know-kavanaugh-is-lying

    This is just further corroboration. I voted for Trump and tend to lean Republican these days, though I think of myself as an independent. I don’t see what is so great about this guy that he absolutely must be put on the Supreme Court, even if his handling of Ford’s accusations have raised serious questions about his character. I would have preferred if more of the debate about Kavanaugh’s qualifications had revolved around the history of his legal decisions, but now that the character issue has emerged, it has to be considered. I think he should be dropped.

    1. So, basically, you find the rape accusation not reliable, but you took issue with how an innocent man defended himself with a 36 year old calendar, so he should be dropped.

  18. When the hearings resume, I hope to hear Mr. Kavanagh quote Scrooge from the 1951 film:

    “l also beat my wife and skewer innocent babies when in my cups.”

    No matter what he says, he’s going to be attacked unjustly, so why not make a laugh of it.

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