The Associated Press
Published 9:31 a.m. ET Sept. 8, 2018

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New York, US – This latest hectic week in Donald Trump’s presidency, which saw new leaks from insiders about his madcap leadership style, has revived questions about whether his is the most scandal-plagued administration in the history of the United States.

American political dramas are nothing new. From titillating revelations about President Bill Clinton’s trysts with an intern to the Watergate saga that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency, plenty of impropriety, gossip and intrigue have emanated from the White House over the years. 

But Trump’s West Wing has started to look like something different altogether. This week’s developments – an excoriating new book from famed journalist Bob Woodward and a senior administration official publishing a backbiting op-ed in The New York Times – are just the tip of the iceberg.

They occur against the backdrop of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible coordination between Trump campaign members and Russia in the 2016 US election, which has shone spotlights on lies, fraud, and hush money pay-outs to an adult film actress and a former Playboy model.

James Melcher, a University of Maine at Farmington professor, was unwilling to judge Trump until the Mueller investigation confirms or rejects suspicions of skulduggery. Even so, these are unchartered waters, he told Al Jazeera.

“What is different is that we’ve had so many allegations in the first act of the play. It is really peculiar to have a president, not even two years into office, to have this many targets. For his critics, it’s a shooting gallery,” said Melcher.

The 45th president is fighting several fires at once, but his biggest headache is the inquiry into whether his campaign team colluded with Moscow to swing the election his way. If proven, it would likely trigger fresh calls for his impeachment.

It recalls past probes into corruption at the highest level of American politics, from the Teapot Dome scandal in which one of President Warren Harding’s officials took bribes for a lucrative oil deal in the 1920s, to the financial scams that dogged Ulysses Grant’s administration in the 1870s.

But Trump’s alleged election-influencing is more frequently likened to the scandals that dogged Republican President Richard Nixon, who was implicated in a plot to break into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington.

Nixon’s chicanery was exposed in part by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who were fed information by an informant known as Deep Throat, who was later revealed to be the deputy director of the FBI.

For Robert Strong, a Washington and Lee University scholar, the Nixon and Trump dramas both hint at the kinds of stunts politicians might pull to win an election. Even so, a candidate plotting with a rival foreign power would be several shades worse than Nixon’s misdeeds.

“Nixon played dirty tricks and had a slush fund, but his scandal was domestic,” said Strong. “If there were solid evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign team and foreign intelligence services, that would be unprecedented.”

Mueller’s probe could drag on for months longer, but it has already secured criminal convictions or guilty pleas from four of Trump’s former advisors and also led to a separate case with damaging revelations about Trump’s private life.

In that inquiry, Trump has been implicated by his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, over hush money payments to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal – two women who say they had sex with Trump.

Trump has denied having sex with either woman and also denied knowledge of the payments, but that has not stopped the type of saucy media coverage that has surrounded the private lives of some past presidents and candidates.

Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland struggled in the 1884 election amid swirling claims he had fathered a child out of wedlock. Andrew Jackson similarly had his private life exposed in the 1828 election, over claims that his wife, Rachel, was a bigamist.

In the 20th Century, such presidents as John F Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt were spared scandals, as claims of extra-marital affairs were brushed under the carpet. Not so for Clinton, whose fling with Monica Lewinsky was front page news.

The Arkansas politician survived earlier claims of marital infidelity in the 1992 and 1996 elections, but lying under oath about Lewinsky led to his impeachment by house legislators in December 1998. He was acquitted by senators the next month.

Trump’s ex-lawyer Cohen has pleaded guilty and implicated the president in campaign finance violations, but the sex scandal itself may not be so damaging, Melcher said. Voters were unaware of the affairs in 2016 but were well acquainted with two-time divorcee Trump’s bragging about where to “grab” women in a widely-shared video.

A more pressing problem for Trump, however, comes on September 11, with the release of Watergate reporter Woodward’s warts-and-all account of his 20-month-old presidency, called Fear: Trump in the White House.

Excerpts from the book already released depict Trump as reckless and impulsive, with aides sometimes trying to limit what they saw as damaging behaviour by disregarding his instructions.

It follows similar exposés of chaos from insiders, including Trump’s former adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman. On Wednesday, the New York Times took the unusual step of publishing a column by an unnamed senior official in the Trump administration.

The writer slammed Trump’s “amorality” and hectic leadership, describing a number of US officials who were part of a “quiet resistance” within the administration who were “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”

The revelations bolstered other reports of turbulence under the former New York businessman and reality TV star, who has had an unusually high level of staff turnover and has publicly bashed his top aides, notably Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Of course, Trump is not the first president to be criticised for his performance. President Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Edith, unofficially ran the country in the weeks after his stroke in 1919.

Ronald Reagan was accused of falling asleep at the wheel during the Iran-Contra Affair when, without his knowledge, his officials ran a secret operation involving Iran-backed rebels and the anti-communist Contras of Nicaragua.

In another Watergate parallel, accounts of Trump’s rashness can be compared with Nixon, who grew increasingly isolated and suspicious as the break-in and its cover-up led to impeachment proceedings and his resignation in 1974, said Strong.

“But while Nixon could be paranoid, angry and vicious, no one ever said he was incompetent,” said Strong.

For Jonathan Cristol, an academic at Adelphi University and author of a forthcoming book on the 9/11 attacks and Afghanistan, questions over Trump’s aptness for office put him in a different league to Nixon, Reagan and Clinton.

“We’ve never had so many negative reports about a president’s fitness to lead,” said Cristol. “The president’s abilities, character, honesty and respect for the rule of law are in doubt, and nobody is willing to do anything about it.”

Melcher is not pulling the trigger on Trump just yet. While his scandals may seem noisier than those in the past, they have likely been amplified by such innovations as Facebook and Twitter and a more partisan domestic media than many of Trump’s predecessors faced.

And while Trump’s “salad of scandals” offers the full range of muck on mistresses, lies, election campaigns and foreign plots, only time will tell whether Mueller produces hard evidence and if voters or legislators care enough to act on it, he added.

“The hits keep on coming, but their impact may not be so severe,” said Melcher, a contributor to the book Presidential Swing States.

“The web of interconnected allegations has become a blur and people are getting numb to it. Trump will always call it a witch-hunt and, all the while, the Dow Jones gets higher. A good economy cancels out a lot of bad behaviour.”

SAN FRANCISCO — With millions of dollars in backing, some from tech giants, the brainchild of a 23-year-old Dutch college dropout steams out to sea Saturday afternoon, ready to take on the seemingly overwhelming problem of plastic pollution in the oceans. 

The hope is that vessel, the first of a planned fleet or 60 or more, can strain out the millions of pounds of plastic trash that collects in slow-moving ocean whirlpools called gyres, which can be hundreds of miles across. 

The ungainly vessel will start out as a long line of linked floating booms – 2,000 feet of them – that will be towed out from the dockyard where it’s been built in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. It will motor under the Golden Gate Bridge and out to a testing area about 275 miles off the coast of California.

Once in place, the Ocean Cleanup, dubbed System 001, will be deployed. The passive system’s floating series of connected booms will naturally form into a broad U-shape. Below the booms, a 9-foot skirt gently corrals the plastic trash that contaminates our seas.

More: 6 things you can do to stop plastic pollution today

More: Where did the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch come from? How do we stop it?

More: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Currents and waves push trash into the machine’s center to collect it. Floating particles are captured by the net while the push of water against the net propels fish and other marine life under and beyond. 

A garbage ship will then be sent out to scoop up the collected trash and transport it to shore, where it will be recycled. 

The system is fitted with solar-powered lights and anti-collision systems to keep any stray ships from running into it, along with cameras, sensors and satellites that allow it to communicate with its creators. 

A multi-year project

The project is due to the efforts of Boyan Slat, who as a teenager was so disgusted by the plastic waste he encountered diving off Greece that he has devoted his life to cleaning up the mess.

The non-profit he helped found has garnered support from the Dutch government, individuals and many in the tech world including Marc Benioff of Salesforce. Last year, it received $5.9 million in donations and reported reserves from donations in previous years of $17 million. 

The system is being built in San Francisco so it can tackle the largest of the world’s five trash gyres, the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch. These patches consist of huge concentrations of garbage, mostly made up of buoyant plastics.

Due to the gyres (which act like slow-moving whirlpools), the floating trash gathers in areas hundreds of miles across.

On Saturday, the Maersk Launcher ship will take cleanup machine out to sea, accompanied by seven staff from the Ocean Cleanup, 18 crewmembers from the Danish shipping company Maersk and five independent marine observers. Press will follow in boats, helicopters and planes. The entire event will be live-streamed on the Ocean Cleanup’s website. 

It will take about five days for the system to reach the testing area, where it will be deployed for about two weeks.

If all goes well, it will be towed out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch nearly 1,400 miles off the West Coast, about halfway between California and Hawaii. 

The project is lauded by many as a positive attempt to deal with the growing problem of plastic pollution in the oceans.

However, many in the marine biology and oceanographic world worry that it could keep the public from focusing on the real problem – stopping the seemingly endless flow of trash into the oceans in the first place. 

While Rolf Halden, a professor of environmental health engineering at Arizona State University, applauds the effort, he says cleaning while trash pours in doesn’t make much sense.

“If you allow the doors to be open during a sandstorm while you’re vacuuming,” he said, “you won’t get very far.” 

 

 

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With Serena Williams in position to win her 24th Grand Slam singles title and tie tennis’ career record, there should be no mixed emotions. The record is currently held by a homophobe.

Margaret Court, an Australian who won her Grand Slam titles during a career that spanned from 1960 to 1977, was ingloriously honored this past spring for “most homophobic comment of the year.” She earned that honor at the 9th annual GLORIAs (Gay & Lesbian Outrageous, Ridiculous and Ignorant comment Awards) in Australia, where Court lives and spews anti-gay commentary.

More: Naomi Osaka earns chance to play Serena Williams, her idol

What gained the GLORIAs attention: During an interview with a Vision Christian Radio last year, Court suggested gay-rights activists create gender confusion in children.

“That’s what Hitler did and that’s what Communism did – it got to the mind of the children,” Court said, according to published reports. “And there’s a whole plot in our nation, and in the nations of the world, to get to the minds of the children.”

Raised Roman Catholic, Court was ordained as a Pentecostal minister in 1991. She is now a senior pastor at Perth’s Victory Life Church, and efforts to reach her Friday by email and Twitter were unsuccessful. 

She has lamented that women’s tennis is “full of lesbians.” Two of the best women’s players in history – Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova – are lesbian. But it’s Court’s comments, not the sexual orientation of players, that are so disturbing.

Opposed to same-sex marriage, Court once said, “You stand with values for family and different things, so you are a voice, and then you get persecuted for that. You are not hating the people. You love the people, but you get taken that way. And I say marriage is between a man and a woman.”

On Saturday, Williams will play Naomi Osaka in the U.S. Open final with a chance to match Court’s record and infuse it with acceptance and empathy. After the 2016 massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., where 49 people were killed and 53 more were wounded, Williams posted a photo of pink roses on Instagram and made her sentiments clear.

“We are all human,’’ she wrote. “This senseless act of violence is unnecessary. So many things really need to start being addressed. Praying for all the victims in #Orlando #humanity.’’ 

She will be the deserving record holder, indeed.

 

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Former US President Barack Obama has launched an unprecedented attack on his successor Donald Trump and his Republican party, condemning the use of fearmongering and bigotry as electoral devices.

In a rallying cry ahead of November’s midterm elections, Obama told an audience at the University of Illinois that the United States was going through a period in which the “powerful and privileged” sought to keep people divided and angry. 

“It did not start with Donald Trump,” Obama said in his first direct criticism of the incumbent US leader since he took power after the November 2016 election.

“He is a symptom, not the cause. He is just capitalising on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years,” he added before condemning the Republican party for “shielding” Trump from facing the consequences of his worst actions.

The Democrat hit out at the Republican party’s record on the environment, the White House’s “cosying up” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Trump administration’s targeting of minorities and Trump’s own threats against the media.

“Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren’t for those who don’t look like us or don’t sound like us or don’t pray like we do…that’s an old playbook,” Obama said.

“In a healthy democracy, there are some checks and balances on this kind of behaviour, this kind of inconsistency, but right now, there’s nothing,” he added. 

“Republicans who know better in Congress … are still bending over backwards to shield this behaviour from scrutiny or accountability or consequence.” 

Obama also accused Republicans of giving tax cuts to the rich, taking away healthcare from millions, and rejecting scientific facts behind climate change.

“It’s not conservative. It sure isn’t normal. It’s radical. It’s a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters, even when it hurts the country.”

Inspiring words from @BarackObama today. A powerful reminder that it’s on all of us to vote this fall if we want leaders who reflect the civility, character, dignity, and goodness of the American people. The stakes couldn’t be higher, but Americans always rise to the occasion.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 7, 2018

The former US leader has a long rivalry with Trump – who was a key proponent of the conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the US, which if true would have rendered him ineligible to hold office.

On his Twitter account, Trump did not respond directly but instead shared tweets attacking Obama, including one which accused him of “slick speaking” and being responsible for “school shootings”.

The upcoming mid-term elections are seen as a key test of Trump’s first two years in power. 

If the Democrats are able to gain control of the Houses of Congress, they would be able to severely hinder Trump’s policies. 

The US president is feeling the pressure as an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election pulls in an increasing number of his associates.

Trump also faces criticism from within his administration, albeit anonymously in most cases.

Earlier this week, an unnamed White House official penned a New York Times opinion piece, claiming the president’s worst impulses were tempered by “adults in the room”, who ensured he did not act to the detriment of the US on issues such as foreign policy. 

The time has come: Summer’s over and Apple is holding a bonanza of a launch event to announce new products, headlined by what will likely be three new iPhones.

After months of rumors and speculation, Tim Cook and company will make Apple’s fall product lineup official on Sept. 12 at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, CA.

Ready or not, here’s everything we expect Apple to announce in just a few days.

From new iPhones, to new Apple Watches, to new accessories, there’s gonna be a lot to ingest and probably something for everyone.

iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max/Plus?

Apple cornered itself into a naming conundrum with the iPhone X (pronounced “ten” but most people call it “ex”) and it’s sure gonna be interesting to see what they call this year’s high-end iPhones. 

Will the refreshed 5.8-inch OLED iPhone be called the iPhone XS (cue the “tennis” and “excess” jokes) as rumored? What about the bigger 6.5-inch iPhone? XS Plus or, ugh, XS Max?

Whatever the names are, these two iPhones will likely be virtually identical with the exception of display size. We aren’t expecting any major external changes. They should have the same stainless steel frame, same glass sandwich design, same notch, same dual camera setup on the rear, and same stereo speakers.

The insides will be all new — probably a new A12 processor, up to 256GB of internal storage, maybe larger batteries (for sure on the bigger model), and improved camera performance for hopefully both the front and rear cameras. And maybe Apple Pencil support?

An alleged press image also suggests these two OLED iPhones might come in a new polished gold color.

The current iPhone X costs $999 for the 64GB and $1,149 for the 256GB. Apple could drop the price of the updated 5.8-inch iPhone to under $999 (maybe $899 or $949) and slot the new 6.5-inch at the $999 or $1,149 price.

iPhone 9?

The two iPhone XS models will be the top-of-the-line iPhones and cost a pretty penny. But Apple’s expected to announce another iPhone that’s more affordable.

This “iPhone 9” or “iPhone XR” or “iPhone XC” (honestly, nobody but Apple really knows what it’ll be called) is expected to have a 6.1-inch all-screen display with a notch. The key difference between this iPhone and the iPhone XS will be the screen technology — instead of OLED, the display will be an LCD. 

Compared to OLED displays, LCD screens are cheaper to produce, which should mean the 6.1-inch iPhone will cost less than the 5.8-inch iPhone XS. Analysts predict this iPhone could cost somewhere between $700-800.

This new entry-level iPhone is rumored to come in a variety of different colors (rumored shades are gray, white, blue, red, and orange) and have a single rear camera with a rather sizable bump.

It’s also expected to have an aluminum frame instead of the stainless steel on the high-end iPhones. Wireless charging is practically a given since the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus both have it.

Rumor has it this iPhone might not come with 3D Touch, though. And you can bet money the headphone jack won’t make a return.

For the more detailed run-down on all the rumors and leaks we’ve seen on the 6.1-inch iPhone, check out our roundup here.

Apple Watch Series 4

Apple’s smartwatch is due for an upgrade and all the rumors point to a noticeable overhaul.

Thanks to an alleged image published by 9to5Mac, it’s strongly believed the Apple Watch Series 4 will be released the same two 38mm and 42mm sizes.

The OLED displays, however, will be larger and the bezels around it will smaller so that there’s more room to display content.

The watch case itself might also be thinner. And if the image is genuine, it appears the side button will be longer than previous generation Apple Watches and will be haptic-based instead of mechanical.

It also looks like the large red dot on the Digital Crown will be replaced with a more subtle red ring.

Like the Series 3, Apple will likely offer the new Apple Watches in both Bluetooth and cellular models. And there will probably be new colors and bands to match.

iOS 12, watchOS 5, macOS Mojave, tvOS 12 release date

Image: justin sullivan/getty images

Apple announced iOS 12, watchOS 5, macOS Mojave, and tvOS 12 at WWDC with a vague “fall” release. 

Well, fall is here (technically not till Sept. 21, but the fall season really begins after Labor Day), and that means all of the new software is ready to drop. For iOS 12, Apple might release it on Sept. 18. The last two iOS releases launched the following Tuesday after the Apple event. However, in 2015, iOS 9 came out the following Wednesday.

WatchOS and tvOS usually come out on the same day as the new version of iOS. 

MacOS is a different story and usually comes out the week after iOS. High Sierra came out on Monday, Sept. 25, 2017 and before that Sierra came out on Tuesday, Sept. 20. If Apple follows the same timeline, we expect macOS Mojave to come out either on Sept. 24 or 25.

AirPower and AirPods

Can we get a finally? After announcing its 3-in-1 wireless charger for iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods at last year’s iPhone event, Apple is expected to start shipping it soon. The big question still is: How much will it cost? 

As for AirPods — we’d love to see an update to them. The current generation AirPods came out at the end of 2016 and a Bloomberg report says Apple might update the true wireless earbuds with the ability to use a “Hey Siri” voice command to summon the digital assistant instead of needing to tap on one of the buds. It might also come with a new W2 chip.

If AirPower finally makes its real-world debut, Apple will almost certainly release the wireless charging case for AirPods, which also never shipped, as well.

Wild cards

With all of the above, it’s gonna be a jam-packed event. However, we wouldn’t put it past Apple to surprise with “one more thing.”

Will we see refreshed iPads with slimmer bezels and Face ID? How about that rumored 13-inch MacBook that’ll replace the aging MacBook Air? 

A price drop on the HomePod sure would be nice. Might we see a HomePod mini or a Siri-powered Beats Bluetooth speaker? New Beats headphones with longer battery life and a new W2 chip?

Anything’s possible, but all of the stuff we’ve listed above are almost certain. All will be clear on Sept. 12. Mashable will be bringing you live coverage from the event. Stay tuned!

WASHINGTON – Brett Kavanaugh arrived at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing this week seemingly outflanked by his opponents.

In front of him, former prosecutors stared down from the Democrats’ side of the Senate Judiciary Committee dais. Behind him, scores of protesters loomed, ready to interrupt the proceedings at every turn.

For ammunition, both groups had a dispute over withheld documents and the travails of the man who nominated him, President Donald Trump.

After more than 24 hours of testimony, however, Kavanaugh emerged largely unbroken, waving not a white flag but his battered copy of the Constitution.

How the soft-spoken, 53-year-old federal appeals court judge did it is a lesson in tried and true tactics: Steer clear of politics. Hide behind precedent. Don’t answer hypothetical questions. Empathize with opponents. And have a faulty memory.

For two days that went well into the night, Kavanaugh offered a master class in answering the questions he wanted to hear, rather than the ones actually asked.

“You’re becoming really good,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said as the nominee expounded on a response longer than necessary. “You’re learning to filibuster.”

Here are five ‘gotcha’ moments from which Kavanaugh escaped:

Trump’s taunts

LIke Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, confirmed 54-45 last year, Kavanaugh was asked to answer for some of Trump’s most impolitic remarks. In Gorsuch’s case, it was the president’s 2017 attacks on federal judges. In carefully scripted remarks, the Coloradan called them “demoralizing” and disheartening.”

Perhaps aware of reports that Trump nearly pulled Gorsuch’s nomination out of personal pique, Kavanaugh was even more careful. Confronted several times by Trump’s recent attack on the Justice Department for indicting two Republican congressmen, he said he must stay “three Zip codes away from the line” of political commentary. 

Asked later to comment on Trump’s attack during the 2016 presidential campaign on Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – the president said “her mind is shot” after Ginsburg criticized him – Kavanaugh said, “I’m not going to get drawn into a political controversy.”

Trump’s travails

More dangerous were the moments – and there were many – when Democrats linked Kavanaugh’s strong support for a powerful presidency with the possibility that the Supreme Court will have to decide whether Trump can be subpoenaed, indicted or self-pardoned, or whether he can fire special counsel Robert Mueller. 

“It’s in the context of the Trump presidency that we ask you these questions,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said. 

Kavanaugh refused to answer the questions on the grounds that they were hypothetical and could come to the justices in the future. But standing accused of becoming Trump’s hand-picked puppet on the court, he couldn’t leave it there.

“I am one not afraid at all, through my record of 12 years, to invalidate executive power,” he said.

Overturn Roe?

The issue on virtually all senators’ minds all week was abortion. Would Kavanaugh vote to overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion coast to coast? A simple yes-or-no answer would suffice. Of course, there would be no such answer.

What Kavanaugh cited over and over was the importance – but not the inviolability – of Supreme Court precedent. And in this case, not just precedent but “precedent on precedent” – the addition of the court’s 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the right but allowed for state restrictions, such as requiring parental consent for minors.

Parental consent is what led him to dissent last year when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit allowed an undocumented teenager in federal custody to get an abortion. Kavanaugh said more time should have been allowed to find a sponsor, so the government would not be involved.

“I made it clear it had to happen very quickly,” he said, so that the anonymous 17-year-old from Central America wouldn’t bump up against Texas’ 20-week limit. He noted he did not agree with a fellow judge who wrote that illegal immigrants lack abortion rights.

“I did the best I could,” he said.

Protesters’ pleas

On other issues that galvanized protesters – gun control, health care and voting rights among them – Kavanaugh pointed to the kinder, gentler rhetoric in his opinions that nevertheless went against liberals’ interests.

His dissent that would have struck down a District of Columbia ban on semi-automatic  weapons? Required by precedent, Kavanaugh said, but “the violence in the schools is something we all detest.”

His dissent in a case upholding the Affordable Care Act? Just for procedural reasons, he said, and “I expressed my respect for the congressional goal in that legislation.”

His opinion upholding a photo ID law in South Carolina? It allowed for exceptions and was delayed for a year so that those affected could prepare, he said, adding, “I was all over the real-world effects.”

‘Be careful, sir’

The most unusual moment came late Wednesday night when Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California – one of five former prosecutors among the committee’s 10 Democrats – asked if he had discussed the Mueller investigation with any lawyers from a firm headed by Marc Kasowitz, one of Trump’s many former lawyers. 

“Be careful with your answer, sir,” Harris intoned, perhaps causing Kavanaugh to do just that. He acknowledged talking about the case with fellow judges but said he didn’t know who the senator had in mind.

“I think you’re thinking of someone, and you don’t want to tell us,” she said. But the encounter ended in a stand-off, and by Thursday Kavanaugh had refreshed his memory enough to deny her charge – one apparently intended to force a Justice Kavanaugh to recuse himself from a potential future case. 

“I’ve had no inappropriate discussions with anyone,” he told Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut. Later, he added, “I’ve had no discussions of the kind that I think you’re asking about.”

And, ultimately to Harris, he said, “The answer’s no.”

More: Brett Kavanaugh: Supreme Court nominee straight out of central casting

More: Will Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh deliver the change conservatives crave?

More: ‘Sparks will fly’ at Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh

 

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