Kavanaugh says had he recognized Parkland dad at hearing, he would have shaken his hand

Fred Guttenberg reaches out to shake Brett Kavanaugh's hand.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh released a 263-page document on Wednesday, responding to more than 1,000 questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

He said, among other things, that he has never had any gambling debts, finds it inappropriate to comment on President Trump's tweets, and did not recognize Fred Guttenberg, the father of a Parkland shooting victim, when Guttenberg approached him during a break in last week's hearing. Guttenberg's 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, and Kavanaugh said he thought he was a protester. "If I had known who he was, I would have shaken his hand, talked to him, and expressed my sympathy," Kavanaugh wrote. "And I would have listened to him." (You can watch the exchange for yourself.) He added that his security detail rushed him from the room in a "split second."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.