Former NBA player Chris Dudley says he never saw Brett Kavanaugh 'blacked out' at Yale
Former NBA player Chris Dudley refuted claims made by fellow classmates about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this week, saying he “never, ever saw him blacked out” while they were at parties during their Yale days.
Kavanaugh’s character has come into question following his confirmation hearing and the initial report from Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her during a drunken party in high school. Ford initially sent a letter to her senator in July. Two women have since accused him of sexual assault, including Debbie Ramirez. Ramirez said he exposed himself to her during a party their freshman year at Yale.
Kavanaugh is set to appear Thursday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Media outlets have pored over yearbooks and contacted friends and former classmates, including Dudley, about Kavanaugh’s time in high school and college. Dudley ran for Oregon governor on the Republican ticket in 2010.
“That’s just not Brett,” Dudley told the New York Times regarding how the allegations don’t align with the Kavanaugh he knows. “That’s not in his character.”
Dudley ‘never, ever saw him blacked out’
Dudley and Kavanaugh attended Yale University as undergraduates between 1983 and 1987 and were close friends, according to Buzzfeed. Dudley went on to play 16 seasons in the NBA, beginning with the Cleveland Cavaliers and ending with the Portland Trail Blazers. Kavanaugh stayed at Yale for law school.
Buzzfeed journalist Molly Hensley-Clancy talked to former college classmates of Kavanaugh, some of whom characterized the nominee as one who “drank a lot — he wasn’t falling asleep reading a book.” Dudley refuted claims he was a “notably heavy drinker” who often became “aggressive and belligerent.”
“When he went out Friday nights, I was usually with him,” Dudley told Buzzfeed News. “I never, ever saw him blacked out, never… Brett would drink, but he’d also be the guy who never missed a class. There’s a reason he was top of his class.”
Dudley says Kavanaugh is being ‘unfairly maligned’
The Washington Post also contacted Dudley for its piece on how Kavanaugh’s “choir boy” image interview Monday night on Fox News didn’t sit well with Yale classmates.
Dudley provided one of WaPo’s dissenting opinions and told the paper he feels his “great friend” is being unfairly maligned.
“I went out with him all the time. He never blacked out. Never even close to blacked out,” Dudley said. “There was drinking, and there was alcohol. Brett drank, and I drank. Did he get inebriated sometimes? Yes. Did I? Yes. Just like every other college kid in America.”
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