Kavanaugh says it was legal for seniors to drink when he was in high school, but Maryland's drinking age was raised to 21 when he was 17
- Both women who have accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in high school and college say that he was intoxicated when the alleged incidents occurred.
- Kavanaugh addressed his high school's drinking culture in an interview on Monday, saying the drinking age was 18 back then.
- But in 1982, Maryland - where Kavanaugh was raised and attended high school - changed the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. He was 17 at the time.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his wife, Ashley Kavanaugh, conducted an unusual interview with Fox News on Monday in an attempt to defend the Supreme Court nominee's reputation amid sexual misconduct allegations.
As the backdrop to these allegations, Kavanaugh has been portrayed as an eager participant in a hard-partying culture at his elite all-boys high school, Georgetown Preparatory, and as a college student at Yale University, where he was a member of a fraternity and an all-male secret society, Truth and Courage, nicknamed "Tit and Clit."
Both of Kavanaugh's accusers say he was intoxicated when the alleged misconduct occurred in high school and college.
At one point during the Monday interview, Kavanaugh addressed Georgetown Prep's drinking culture.
"Yes, there were parties," Kavanaugh told Fox host Martha MacCallum. "And the drinking age was 18, and yes, the seniors were legal and had beer there. And yes, people might have had too many beers on occasion and people generally in high school - I think all of us have probably done things we look back on in high school and regret or cringe a bit."
But Maryland's drinking age for beer and wine was legally changed from 18 to 21 in July 1982, during the summer before Kavanaugh's senior year. It had already been 21 for hard liquor.
Residents who had turned 18 by that time were grandfathered in and allowed to drink. Kavanaugh was 17 at the time.
In 1984, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act made the drinking age 21 nationwide.
Christine Blasey Ford, now a professor of psychology, says that Kavanaugh forced himself on her, locked her in a room, groped her, and covered her mouth to mask her screams during a drunken house party when she was 15 and he was 17.
Kavanaugh insisted during the interview that he never drank so much that he could not recall what happened while he was intoxicated.
"That never happened," he said.
Kavanaugh's college roommate, James Roche, told The New Yorker that he remembered Kavanaugh being "frequently, incoherently drunk" and said that it was plausible that Kavanaugh exposed himself to their classmate, Deborah Ramirez, while inebriated in college.
"Is it believable that she was alone with a wolfy group of guys who thought it was funny to sexually torment a girl like Debbie? Yeah, definitely," Roche said, referring to Ramirez, who was his close friend in college. "Is it believable that Kavanaugh was one of them? Yes."
Kavanaugh has forcefully denied both women's allegations, calling the claims "smears, pure and simple" and "grotesque and obvious character assassination" in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.
During the Fox interview, he said he wouldn't "speculate about motives."
"I am not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps Dr. Ford, at some point in her life, was sexually assaulted by someone in some place," Kavanaugh said. "But what I know is I've never sexually assaulted anyone in high school or at any time in my life."