Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh shakes hands with then-President Donald Trump during Kavanaugh's ceremonial swearing. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
12/07/2021 12:09 PM EST
During Brett Kavanaugh’s controversial 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearings, President Donald Trump “strongly considered” dropping the nominee and instead going with a “stronger candidate,” according to a new book by Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
It wasn’t because of accusations that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford while in high school, but because he’d professed that he “liked beer” during his hearings and was, in Trump’s estimation, being too apologetic.
Meadows writes that Trump, a teetotaler who was “extremely put off” by Kavanaugh’s professed affection for suds, proposed the idea of dropping Kavanaugh during a flight on Air Force One while Meadows was still a sitting congressman. Meadows advised against it for fear the “blowback would be severe.”
At the time he was having private reservations about Kavanaugh, Trump was publicly fighting for his confirmation, mocking Blasey Ford’s testimony at a rally and brushing off concerns from GOP lawmakers about his viability as a Supreme Court nominee.
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