Trump defends Brett Kavanaugh; Says ”I don’t drink”

Washington, Oct 2: US President Donald Trump on Monday (Oct 1) jokingly remarked that he doesn't have drinking habit which he considers to be one of his good qualities as a reference to his Supreme Court nominee Justice Brett Kavanaugh who spoke about his drinking habits during the testimony of his sexual assault allegations.

"I'm not a drinker. I can honestly say I never had a beer in my life, OK? It's one of my only good traits. I don't drink," Trump told reporters jokingly, resulting in a burst of laughter from some reporters at a White House news conference.

"Whenever they're looking for something, I'm going to say, 'I never had a glass of alcohol'. I've never had alcohol. ... Can you imagine if I had what a mess I'd be? I'd be the world's worst. But I never drank. I never drank," Trump said.

The President was responding to a question on the drinking habits of his Supreme Court nominee Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who is facing allegations of sexual assault when he was in high school and college. Kavanaugh testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on sexual assault allegations, wherein he also talked about his drinking habits.

His critics have expressed concern that he lied about his drinking habits. Trump, however, said he did not think so. "So, if he did lie about his drinking, does that mean you'll pull his nomination?" Trump was asked. "I don't think he did," answered the US President.

"But I can tell you, I watched that hearing and I watched a man saying that he did have difficulty as a young man with drink. The one question I didn't ask is how about the last 20 years? Have you had difficulty the last 20 years? Because nobody said anything bad about him in many, many years," Trump said.

"They go back to high school. You know, I graduated from high school, and while I did not drink, I saw a lot of people drinking. They'd drink beer and they'd go crazy and, you know, they were in high school. They were 16, 17 years old, and I saw a lot of it. Does that mean that they can't do something that they want to do with their life?" he asked. "So it's a very tough thing. I really believe that he was very strong on the fact that he drank a lot and so I don't know where there'd be big discrepancy," Trump said.

PTI