Brett Kavanaugh was already historically unpopular going into Tuesday's hearing, where he snubbed the father of a slain teenager.
If you thought Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's disastrous first day of confirmation hearings couldn't get any worse, think again.
After a contentious morning during which some senators called for the hearing to be adjourned due to Kavanaugh's unprecedented lack of transparency, the nominee spent his lunch break trying to get the father of a school shooting victim kicked out of the hearing.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie was gunned down in the Parkland shooting, attended Tuesday's hearing and tried to approach Kavanaugh to shake his hand. According to the grieving father, Kavanaugh not only refused to shake his hand, but he actually asked security to kick him out of the building after he introduced himself.
Photojournalist Andrew Harnik first reported on the initial snub in a tweet, noting that Kavanaugh refused to shake Guttenberg's hand when the men stood up as they got ready to leave for lunch.
Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jamie Guttenberg who was killed in the shooting in Parkland, Fla., left, tries to shake hands with @realDonaldTrump's Supreme Court nom., Brett Kavanaugh, right, during a lunch break. Kavanaugh did not shake his hand. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) @ap pic.twitter.com/smcCGuLT6X
— Andrew Harnik (@andyharnik) September 4, 2018
But according to Guttenberg, that was only the beginning.
Appearing on CNN Tuesday evening, Guttenberg described his encounter with Kavanaugh, saying he was rebuffed when he introduced himself as the father of a teen slain in the Parkland shooting.
According to Guttenberg, as soon as he mentioned that his daughter was murdered in Parkland, Kavanaugh turned away.
"All he had to do was extend his hand back and say, 'I'm sorry about your loss,'" Guttenberg said.
But not only did Kavanaugh refuse to shake his hand — a short time later, he apparently asked security to escort Guttenberg out of the hearing.
"He also went to security afterwards," Guttenberg said, explaining that when he returned to his seat after the lunch break, "security came and pulled me out the room."
And according to the Parkland father, this wasn't a case of mistaken identity. Quite the opposite, actually. As Guttenberg recounted, when Kavanaugh described him to security, he identified him by the bracelets he wears to commemorate his slain daughter.
Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that Kavanaugh was so scared to face the father of a teen murdered in a school shooting, given his opposition to common sense gun safety legislation and his belief that the right to own high capacity rifles is as fundamental as the right to free speech.
As Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) warned earlier this summer, "If you care about common sense gun violence protection, Judge Kavanaugh is your worst nightmare."
Going into Tuesday's hearing, Kavanaugh was already historically unpopular, with more people opposed to his nomination than in favor of it. After snubbing the father of a school shooting victim, he may soon be competing with Trump's record-breaking disapproval rating.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
