--- title: White House: Brett Kavanaugh's Testimony Was 'Spectacular' description: White House officials and allies to Donald Trump were bolstered by Brett Kavanaugh's defiant and at times angry Senate hearing statement canonical: https://time.com/5409098/kavanaugh-testimony-white-house/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-27T21:56:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:45:24.178Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Says Brett Kavanaugh's Testimony Was 'Nothing Short of Spectacular' og:description: “I thought it was nothing short of spectacular — powerful," White House spokesman Raj Shah said og:url: https://time.com/5409098/kavanaugh-testimony-white-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6e46ac70ef6d821/69893b5ce76ad25d156331e7/kavanaugh-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford And Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Testify To Senate Judiciary Committee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Says Brett Kavanaugh's Testimony Was 'Nothing Short of Spectacular' twitter:description: “I thought it was nothing short of spectacular — powerful," White House spokesman Raj Shah said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6e46ac70ef6d821/69893b5ce76ad25d156331e7/kavanaugh-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Says Brett Kavanaugh's Testimony Was 'Nothing Short of Spectacular' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Sep 27, 2018 9:56 PM UTC  Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Sep 27, 2018 9:56 PM UTC White House officials and allies to President Donald Trump were [bolstered by Brett Kavanaugh’s](http://time.com/5408177/brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-testimony/) defiant and at times angry [opening statement](http://time.com/5407189/brett-kavanaugh-transcript-senate-testimony/) Thursday afternoon. “I thought it was nothing short of spectacular — powerful,” White House spokesman Raj Shah told TIME in a telephone interview during a break in the hearing. The stakes were high for Kavanaugh after a morning of compelling, measured [testimony by Christine Blasey Ford](http://time.com/5408567/christine-blasey-ford-science-of-memory/). Republicans were nervous Kavanaugh would repeat the unsteady performance he gave [during a Fox News interview earlier this week](http://time.com/5405319/brett-kavanaugh-fox-news-virgin-supreme-court/) and not be able to stop the tide of public opinion from turning against him. But White House officials found that Kavanaugh defended himself forcefully, and relished seeing him call the confirmation process “a national disgrace.” Kavanaugh took aim at Democratic senators, saying: “You have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy.” White House officials believe that Kavanaugh’s testimony put Democrats on the defensive and was strong enough to convince Republican senators who were on the fence to vote for him. “I think he developed a very compelling narrative for why this stuff isn’t true. You don’t have to hate the accuser or impugn her credibility to vote for him,” Shah said. At one point in his testimony, Kavanaugh asked senators to judge him by the same standards they would want applied to their father, brother or son in a similar situation. “He developed a standard for judging this that everyone would want applied to them,” Shah said. President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. complimented Kavanaugh’s feisty demeanor. “I love Kavanaugh’s tone,” Don Jr. wrote on Twitter. “It’s nice to see a conservative man fight for his honor,” he wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1045406618287050752) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5409098/kavanaugh-testimony-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5409098/kavanaugh-testimony-white-house/"},"headline":"White House Says Brett Kavanaugh's Testimony Was 'Nothing Short of Spectacular'","datePublished":"2018-09-27T21:56:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:45:24.178Z","description":"“I thought it was nothing short of spectacular — powerful,\" White House spokesman Raj Shah said","url":"https://time.com/5409098/kavanaugh-testimony-white-house/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6e46ac70ef6d821/69893b5ce76ad25d156331e7/kavanaugh-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6e46ac70ef6d821/69893b5ce76ad25d156331e7/kavanaugh-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dr. Christine Blasey Ford And Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Testify To Senate Judiciary Committee","caption":"Dr. Christine Blasey Ford And Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Testify To Senate Judiciary Committee","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5409098/kavanaugh-testimony-white-house/","name":"White House Says Brett Kavanaugh's Testimony Was 'Nothing Short of Spectacular'"}}]}] ```