Politics

Did The 65 Women Behind Kavanaugh Withdraw Their Support? Misleading Story Rips Through Twitter

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
Font Size:

Women are running away from their support of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in droves — at least, that’s what a few misleading tweets that circulated on Monday would have you believe. But in reality, of the 65 women who signed a letter supporting his nomination, none have publicly withdrawn their support. Several, in contrast, have reaffirmed it.

Politico writer Daniel Lippman raised questions when he tweeted that of the 65 women who initially signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh, “only TWO said they still stood by him.” (That number was later updated to five.)

According to his article, however, that number only actually reflected the women who had responded positively to requests for comment.

He indicated in the tweet that he had contacted “over two dozen,” most of whom did not respond.

And the story quickly took off, being framed in a similar manner by others.

The Daily Caller reached out to Lippman, presenting the following concern:

Based on the article you published at Politico, it appears that most of the 65 women who signed the letter in support of Brett Kavanaugh either were not contacted or did not respond when they were contacted …

… The way this tweet is worded implies that all but 2 of the women who signed that letter are rethinking their positions in light of the accusations against him — and the article doesn’t really bear that out.

Lippman simply referred TheDC to a tweeted update, explaining that he was adding comments from the women as the got back to him.

But one problem in the initial tweet — which was not addressed in the update — was the implication that Kavanaugh’s supporters were reconsidering their positions in the wake of recent accusations of sexual misconduct from California-based professor Christine Blasey Ford.

Also not mentioned in the tweet was the fact that, according to the quoted article, none of the women have yet come forward to reverse their statements or withdraw their support for Kavanaugh.

Follow Virginia on Twitter.