--- title: Hillary Clinton Laughs at Brett Kavanaugh's 'Revenge' Claim description: Hillary Clinton argued that Brett Kavanaugh's claim that sexual misconduct allegations were "revenge on behalf of the Clintons" laughable canonical: https://time.com/5413062/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-02T19:17:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:36:55.707Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Says Brett Kavanaugh's 'Revenge' Claim Is Laughable og:description: "Boy, I'll tell you, they give us a lot of credit." og:url: https://time.com/5413062/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafece741378ccf1d/69893bad8fd2eea06c35cc35/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-allegations.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2976 og:image:height: 1674 og:image:alt: hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-allegations og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Says Brett Kavanaugh's 'Revenge' Claim Is Laughable twitter:description: "Boy, I'll tell you, they give us a lot of credit." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafece741378ccf1d/69893bad8fd2eea06c35cc35/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-allegations.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Says Brett Kavanaugh's 'Revenge' Claim Is Laughable > 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 [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 2, 2018 7:17 PM UTC  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, during The Atlantic Festival in Washington on Oct. 2, 2018. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, during The Atlantic Festival in Washington on Oct. 2, 2018.Alex Brandon/AP/REX/Shutterstock  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 2, 2018 7:17 PM UTC Hillary Clinton argued that Brett Kavanaugh’s claim that sexual misconduct allegations were “revenge on behalf of the Clintons” is laughable. Speaking at the Atlantic Festival on Tuesday, the former Secretary of State burst out laughing when asked about the Supreme Court nominee’s [testimony to Congress](http://time.com/5410031/kavanaugh-vote-key-senators/), in which he called the allegations a “calculated and orchestrated political hit” driven in part by anger the 2016 election. “It deserves a lot of laughter,” she said. “I thought it was just part of the whole of his very defensive and unconvincing presentation.” Kavanaugh testified last week after California psychology professor [Christine Blasey Ford](http://time.com/5408380/christine-blasey-ford-opening-remarks-transcript/) told Congress that as a teenager Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, put his hand over her mouth and attempted to remove her clothes. Kavanaugh denies the allegations. In his opening remarks, he blasted the congressional inquiries as politically motivated. “This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups,” he said. Kavanaugh [worked for independent counsel](http://time.com/5230934/robert-mueller-ken-starr-investigation-donald-trump/) Ken Starr during the investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s finances, which led to the president’s impeachment in the House of Representatives for lying about a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton joked that Kavanaugh’s remarks ascribed a lot of power to her and her husband. “Boy, I’ll tell you, they give us a lot of credit,” she said. “Thirty-six years ago, we started this against him.” When asked if she felt “100% certain” that Ford’s allegations are true, Clinton replied, “I found her very credible. You have to ask yourself, why would anybody put themselves through this if they did not believe that they had important information to convey to the Senate?” “I found her presentation, I found her willingness to say ‘I don’t remember that but I remember this’ to be very convincing,” Clinton continued. “I felt a great swell of pride that she would be willing to put herself out there under these circumstances.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5413062/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5413062/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Says Brett Kavanaugh's 'Revenge' Claim Is Laughable","datePublished":"2018-10-02T19:17:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:36:55.707Z","description":"Hillary Clinton argued that Brett Kavanaugh's claim that sexual misconduct allegations were \"revenge on behalf of the Clintons\" laughable","url":"https://time.com/5413062/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford/","keywords":["Congress","Supreme Court","Brett Kavanaugh"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafece741378ccf1d/69893bad8fd2eea06c35cc35/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-allegations.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafece741378ccf1d/69893bad8fd2eea06c35cc35/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-allegations.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-allegations","caption":"Hillary Clinton speaks at the Atlantic Festival","creditText":"Alex Brandon/AP/REX/Shutterstock","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/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5413062/hillary-clinton-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford/","name":"Hillary Clinton Says Brett Kavanaugh's 'Revenge' Claim Is Laughable"}}]}] ```