By Hanna Bogorowski

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, an outspoken critic of the efforts to discredit Judge Brett Kavanaugh and delay his confirmation to the Supreme Court, wrote a strongly worded op-ed Tuesday criticizing the left’s arguments and at one point suggesting they “stop lying.”

Hatch, who is also the second-highest-ranking official of the Senate and a member of the Judiciary Committee, highlighted an argument used by Kavanaugh opponents that even if the judge is innocent in the sexual assault allegations against him, it won’t matter because his comments at the hearing would still disqualify him.

“This is rich,” Hatch wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal Tuesday.

“The hearing occurred in the first place only because of Democratic duplicity. It occurred only because Senate Democrats sat on Ms. Ford’s allegations for six weeks rather than referring them to committee investigators, as they should have done immediately,” he added.

Several lawmakers and pundits found issue with Kavanaugh’s temperament throughout his testimony, saying his “angry” and “belligerent” behavior is unfitting of a Supreme Court Justice.

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“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hatch responded to such remarks. “Do the people making this argument really expect a man who until five seconds ago had an unblemished reputation to sit passively while his reputation is viciously and permanently destroyed?”

Hatch continued that this was essentially a lose-lose situation for Kavanaugh, because the opposition would have similarly found issue with the judge had he weakly denied the abhorrent accusations with little emotion.

Had he done so, Hatch said, “his critics would have taken his lack of forcefulness as proof of guilt. We all know this. We’re not stupid. Spare us the pearl-clutching.”

For Democrats—who sought every opportunity to turn this process into a circus— to then suggest Kavanaugh can’t defend his hard-earned reputation over decades of service, even as his young family is getting death threats— is the very definition of bad faithhttps://t.co/6f941io7xT

— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) October 3, 2018

The Utah senator later picked apart the left’s argument that Kavanaugh lied under oath in front of the committee about his drinking habits.

Kavanaugh in the hearing admitted to having “too many beers” at times, but critics say he lied by not admitting to having ever blacked out from alcohol consumption, because some former classmates said they’ve witnessed Kavanaugh “slur his words” and have seen him “staggering” from alcohol.

“This is known in the business as a straw man,” Hatch said. “If Judge Kavanaugh’s opponents want to claim he lied about his drinking when he was younger, perhaps they should stop lying about what he actually said.”

Hatch claims Kavanaugh never denied blacking out, and said that because someone was staggering does not mean he/she is blacked out.

“Even a teetotaling Mormon knows the difference.”

Hatch makes an argument toward the end of his op-ed that many Republicans have made: The circus surrounding Kavanaugh and his accusers has never actually been about uncovering the truth and delivering justice to victims.

“If the claims about sexual assault — a serious and important topic that deserves respectful consideration, not this farce — fail to stick, we’ll take him down with straw men about drinking and nitpicking about yearbooks,” Hatch criticized.

“It was always and only about defeating Judge Kavanaugh by any means necessary.”

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