Evangelist Franklin Graham talked with CBN on Wednesday about the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, deeming them “not relevant.”
Graham said, “It’s just a shame that a person like Judge Kavanaugh who has a stellar record — that somebody can bring something up that he did when he was a teenager close to 40 years ago.” Graham continued, “That’s not relevant.”
Graham went on to say at this point, Kavanaugh should be evaluated based on his adult life and confirmed based on his qualifications.
Last week, Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in California, accused Judge Kavanaugh of pinning her down and groping her at a high school party in the 1980s.
Ford sent a confidential letter to members of Congress in July containing her claims, but it was not until last week that the letter was submitted as evidence. A few days later, on Sunday, Ford publicly identified herself through The Washington Post.
Kavanaugh has “categorically and unequivocally” denied the allegations.
According to his interview with CBN, Graham believes these allegations are an attempt by Democrats to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation proceedings, something many conservatives have openly agreed with.
“They couldn’t find anything else in his record and so this is just an attempt to smear him and to smear his name and put a black dot on it,” Graham told CBN News’ Heather Sells.
Sells then begged the question of what message Graham was sending to sexual assault victims by regarding Ford’s claims as “not relevant.”
Graham responded, “Well, there wasn’t a crime that was committed.” He continued saying if it did happen, “these are two teenagers and it’s obvious that she said no and he respected it and walked away.”
In the uncomfortable interview Shells then responds saying that is not the story Ford is telling, noting that Ford needed the intervention of someone else to flee the situation.
Graham responded to this with a question saying, “How far back do we go, Heather, in a person’s life?” This statement seemingly suggesting that if the accusations were true that Kavanaugh ought not to be held accountable for his actions as a teenager.
The evangelist continued, “There’s a lot of things that I’ve done when I was a teenager that I certainly am ashamed of and not proud of,” he said. “People are up in arms over this like ‘oh, this is such a disaster.’ You’re talking about two teenagers 40 years ago. That has nothing to do with what we’re talking about today about this man being a judge on the Supreme court.”
“And they call it sexual assault?” he added. “No, I don’t believe it.”
Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Stephen Chernin/Stringer
Video courtesy: CBN
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