A CNN panel on Friday morning ridiculed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's efforts to rehabilitate his image after last week's hearings, in which the nominee berated senators and engaged in angry outbursts the panel noted were scripted days in advance.
"When you read his editorial in the Wall Street Journal this morning, would his excuse have held more water if he had not been reading from prepared remarks when he made the partisan comment about the Clintons, for example," asked co-host Poppy Harlow. "Those were remarks he carefully wrote the day or days before, prepared. It wasn't heat of the moment."
"It is very hard to argue that 'I was just carried away in the moment' when you are reading from a script," responded legal analyst Shan Wu as the entire panel began laughing.
"I think the reason he's addressing the partisan issue is he has to stay away from the sexual misconduct issue. That's a third rail for him," Wu continued. "He can't talk about that, there's nothing he can say about that."
"He can only try to remind people 'hey remember the Judge Kavanaugh you saw before this came up, I was the non-partisan guy, I'll remind you of that guy'," added Wu, grinning.
"Perhaps forget the Kavanaugh from the Ken Starr investigation," laughed co-host Jim Sciutto.
"Or the political operative Kavanaugh," joined in Harlow.
Kavanaugh's reputation as a ruthless partisan dates to the 1990s, when he hounded President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He has also been accused of receiving documents stolen from Democrats during the Bush administration, and got caught lying about his involvement.
Watch the video below.
