The ACLU Is Spending Over $1 Mil Comparing Kavanaugh to Clinton and Cosby (2024)

The American Civil Liberties Union has upped the ante in the war to block Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

After breaking precedent last week to publicly oppose Kavanaugh, citing unproven allegations against him by Christine Blasey Ford, the ACLU announced Tuesday that it would spend $1 million in ads that will compare the nominee to Bill Cosby and former President Bill Clinton.

“We’ve decided to move to opposition,” said Faiz Shakir, the ACLU’s national political director, according to The Washington Post.“It was incumbent upon us to show how we can flex our muscles in trying to persuade our people in the Kavanaugh vote.”

The ads will be shown in states where the ACLU thinks that either a Republican senator can be convinced to oppose Kavanaugh or a Democratic one needs to be held firm in opposition.

A version of the ad on YouTubeshows Clinton denying that he had sex with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and Cosby, who was sent to prison last week for his sexual assault conviction, before showing Kavanaugh defending himself at last week’s special Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The ad also includes media figures Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer, both of whom were charged with sexual misconduct and lost their jobs. The ad also features disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The ads “walk (viewers) through the people they would’ve potentially registered disapproval with in the past,” Shakir said according toCNN. “You get to Clinton, you get to Cosby — by the time you get to Kavanaugh, you will probably have seen four or five folks who you probably had some concerns with. We’re trying to get conservative women to see this outside the partisan and tribal lens.”

The ACLU has said it is opposing Kavanaugh only because of the sexual misconduct allegations that have been made against him.

“As a nonpartisan organization, the ACLU does not oppose Judge Kavanaugh based on predictions about how he would vote as a Justice. We oppose him in light of the credible allegations of sexual assault against him,” said Susan Herman, president of the ACLU, in a statement released Saturday by the ACLU.

“This is fundamentally a women’s rights issue and making sure that we are standing squarely with equality for women who take on powerful men whose job is on the line,” Shakir said.

On Twitter, the ACLU claims that a vote for Kavanaugh “is a vote that tells survivors their experiences can be disregarded if they inconvenience their powerful abusers.”

Confirming Kavanaugh would be a grave injustice — not only to Dr. Ford, but also to the millions of people with experiences like hers. pic.twitter.com/hvgghmU8Zu

— ACLU (@ACLU) October 1, 2018

However, other voices say that the ACLU cannot claim to be non-partisan and then wade into the partisan battle over Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

ACLU says allegation with no evidence or details & denied by all witnesses is enough to presume accused guilty until proves himself innocent. Get tombstone to mark death of ACLU. Maybe a discount if we ordered tombstones for the SPLC and the Dem Party. https://t.co/nGq5RHC8OS

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) October 1, 2018

"The ACLU has insisted…on the presumption of innocence and due process for Nazis, KKK members, the pedophiles at NAMBLA (the North American Man-Boy Love Association), terrorists, and known criminals." But Brett Kavanaugh? "The burden is on the nominee."https://t.co/u12W9yDFLf

— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) October 1, 2018

“For the ACLU which claims to care about civil liberties to condemn Brett Kavanaugh to the likes of a convicted felon without any evidence shows their true partisan stripes,” White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement.

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