On a Friday evening in the summer of 2018, I drove myself from the White House to Lexington, Virginia, where Bryan, our kids, and my in-laws were spending the weekend at a farmhouse in the mountains outside of town. It had been an exhausting week and after four hours in the car, I arrived to meet Bryan and the family at a small restaurant in downtown Lexington called The Red Hen. They had just ordered drinks and appetizers. I walked in the front door and said hi and gave hugs to everyone. But shortly after I sat down, a woman at the table next to us approached me and said she was the owner of the restaurant and asked if she could talk to me outside on the patio. I agreed, but had an uneasy feeling as we walked out. It was an empty area and just the two of us were standing there. She again reminded me she was the owner and said, “You’re a terrible person. You are not welcome here, and I would like you to leave.” I was stunned. I walked away from her and back inside the restaurant. I quietly approached our table, picked up my things, and whispered to my husband that I had been kicked out. I didn’t say another word to anyone else. I simply walked out the door and didn’t look back. Bryan told his family what had happened, and looked up to see the owner of the restaurant frantically struggling to unlock her phone to video me leaving. It was clear she was hoping to create a viral moment. My father-in-law, Bill, tried to pay the check but The Red Hen refused his money. Bill attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington and named his only daughter, Virginia, because he loved his experience there so much. An attorney from Kansas City, Bill is a loyal husband and father. He is hardworking, funny, and kind, and the way he was made to feel as if his money was somehow unworthy in that establishment was disgraceful.
I got to the car and I was pretty upset. I was already worn out from a tough day at the office and hours on the road, and had really been looking forward to seeing my family, many of whom we only see a few times a year. They asked if we wanted to go to a different restaurant, but at this point I just wanted to go home. Bryan and I drove back to the farmhouse, and kissed our kids goodnight. Scarlett and Huck were cuddled up asleep in each other’s arms in the loft. Bryan reassured me it was okay and reminded me to focus on what matters—our faith, our family, and all that we have to be thankful for. I ate a bowl of cereal at the farmhouse and went to bed.
The rest of our group went to dinner across the street at a different restaurant, called the Southern Inn, hoping to put the incident behind them and spend some time together as a family. Unfortunately the owner of The Red Hen wasn’t content just to kick us out of her restaurant. She and a group of her friends went over to protest and harass my family at the other restaurant as well. Bryan’s dad was appalled. His mom was afraid and worried that it would escalate to violence. Bryan’s brother and sister and their significant others—all liberal Democrats—were angry. His brother walked outside and up to the owner of The Red Hen and said, “Sarah and her husband aren’t here. Nearly everyone you’re harassing right now voted for Hillary Clinton. What you’re doing is uncalled for.”
The next morning Bryan and I woke up, had coffee, and took the kids out on the farm, set on a hillside in the Shenandoah Valley. Scarlett, Huck, and George gathered eggs from the chicken coop, held newborn piglets, and took turns riding a pony. I had left my phone at the house, and returned to dozens of missed calls, texts, and emails asking me what happened at The Red Hen the night before. Turned out our waiter had posted about the incident on social media and a local Democratic activist rebroadcast it on Twitter, which then caught the attention of the national media. Reporters from around the country were now investigating. Some reporters falsely assumed it had taken place at a different restaurant in Washington, DC, with the same name but no affiliation with The Red Hen in Lexington. I decided that instead of wasting the limited family vacation time I had responding to each media request individually, I’d post one statement on Twitter to set the record straight: “Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”
Twitter exploded, and The Red Hen controversy quickly became the top news story in America. The lead on Drudge Report was a photo of the front of the restaurant with the headline: “RED HEN CLUCKAAAAAWWWWKS SANDERS.” At one point, The Red Hen went from the highest-rated restaurant in Lexington on Yelp to the lowest after thousands of negative reviews poured in from Trump supporters around the country. In an attempt at damage control, The Red Hen owner did an interview with The Washington Post and gave a false account of the evening, mentioning nothing about trying to video my family as she kicked us out or following them to a different restaurant and harassing them there. The Washington Post never corrected her story, and in the months that followed published not one but two columns on their editorial page by the owner of The Red Hen defending her actions.
At the farm, we decided to stay in rather than venture back into Lexington. We had a beautiful dinner outside on the deck as the sun set over the mountains. The night ended with the family drinking champagne and doing karaoke, and for a few hours we forgot all about The Red Hen and laughed and enjoyed our time together.
On Sunday we loaded up our Yukon for the drive back to Washington, but The Red Hen controversy raged on. Liberal congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) said, “If you see anybody from that (administration) in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them! And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!”
Former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush Ari Fleischer said, “I guess we’re heading into an America with Democrat-only restaurants, which will lead to Republican-only restaurants. Do the fools who threw Sarah out, and the people who cheer them on, really want us to be that kind of country?”
Even former president Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, no fan of President Trump, said, “Kind of amazed and appalled by the number of folks on Left who applauded the expulsion of @PressSec and her family from a restaurant.”
At our senior staff meeting back at the White House, General Kelly addressed the rising threat level against senior administration officials, and said we should exercise caution in public and when legally permissible carry a firearm in public to defend ourselves. Afterward he pulled me aside and said I needed to meet with Secret Service because they’d determined there had been a credible violent threat made against me.
I was in the Situation Room for a meeting on the border crisis, and the president called me into the Oval Office. “What’d you think of my tweet about The Red Hen? All the attention is kind of cool, isn’t it?”
“Actually, sir, it’s kind of scary. Threats are being made against me and my family and we don’t have any kind of security.”
“You don’t? You must be kidding.”
“No, sir.”
The president couldn’t believe I didn’t have a Secret Service detail. It had never occurred to him that I wouldn’t.
I opened the press briefing that day by addressing the controversy:
Good afternoon. Many by now have heard that I was asked to leave a restaurant this weekend where I attempted to have dinner with my family. My husband and I politely left and went home. I was asked to leave because I work for President Trump.
We are allowed to disagree, but we should be able to do so freely and without fear of harm. And this goes for all people regardless of politics. Some have chosen to push hate and vandalism against the restaurant that I was asked to leave from. A Hollywood actor publicly encouraged people to kidnap my children. And this weekend, a member of Congress called for people to “push back” and make clear to those serving their country in this administration that they are not welcome anywhere, anytime, for anything.
Healthy debate on ideas and political philosophy is important, but the calls for harassment and push for any Trump supporter to avoid the public is unacceptable.
America is a great country, and our ability to find solutions despite those disagreements is what makes us unique.
I went on Fox & Friends and was asked about The Red Hen incident and incivility in politics. “I’m going to continue to do exactly what I tell my kids to do … and that’s to treat everybody with respect.… It’s a sad day in America when Democrats’ only message is to attack people that support this president and support this country.”
In the weeks that followed, hundreds of Bikers for Trump rode through the streets of Lexington in a show of solidarity to protest The Red Hen. The AP, Fox News, and the New York Post ran stories about how The Red Hen incident was hurting tourism and the local economy in Lexington. Fox News reported:
A small town in Virginia is attempting a reputation makeover after a restaurant in the area infamously refused to serve White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders in June.
The area’s regional tourism board is pulling together emergency funds to boost its digital marketing campaign, The Roanoke Times reported Sunday. The money is normally saved, however, officials agreed the region is in desperate need of positive coverage after the Sanders controversy.…
Following the incident, the tourism board was flooded with thousands of calls and emails—and the complaints are still coming. The office received a letter Thursday from a Georgia family that wrote to say it would never return because of what happened.
“For a town our size, it was a significant impact,” Patty Williams, the director of marketing, told The Roanoke Times.…
The restaurant closed its doors for nearly two weeks after the controversy broke.
I still couldn’t understand why anyone would kick a person out of their restaurant over a political disagreement. The year before, Bryan had been kicked out of his fantasy football league—a league he’d participated in for more than a decade with friends from college—because the commissioner of the league said he couldn’t associate with my husband anymore. Not because he worked for President Trump—but because I did.
At my kids’ preschool in Arlington, Virginia, a woman approached me as I was walking my three-year-old George to class and holding his hand, and with a look of pure rage in her eyes told me I was an awful human being. Our three-year-olds were in the same class. The woman turned, walked past George and me, and spat onto the windshield of my car.
In the Trump era, many liberals who preached tolerance were guilty of hateful displays of intolerance. Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) was spiraling out of control. Bryan and I had many Democratic friends, including some who had worked in the Obama administration. We didn’t vote for President Obama or agree with his policies, but it never crossed our minds to be anything but thrilled for our friends who had the opportunity to work in the White House during his administration—to treat them like enemies because of their political affiliation was unconscionable.
I was often told I had a hard job fighting back against President Trump’s critics, but that was never the hardest part of my job. I was proud of the administration’s many achievements and defended the president’s policies unapologetically. The hardest part of my job was realizing that my kids might not be safe anymore. I was no longer only worried about them falling off the monkey bars or getting sick—I was now afraid that someone might hurt them or take them. I wasn’t sleeping. I called their school and talked to their teachers, reminding them that no one who wasn’t on the list was allowed to pick them up. I didn’t allow my kids to attend most playdates or birthday parties they were invited to and for a while we didn’t go out to many places in public.
While Bryan and I attended a party Jared and Ivanka hosted at the Trump International Hotel—one of the few safe places for prominent Trump administration officials in Washington—ABC News broke the story that I would be the first White House press secretary ever to receive Secret Service protection. I woke up the next morning to a line of Secret Service vehicles outside our home and media staked out to cover my departure to the White House with a Secret Service detail for the first time.
As much as some reporters were enraged by the president’s name-calling against the media (“a threat to the freedom of the press and democracy itself!”), some of them apparently couldn’t care less that their personal attacks against the president and his team incited violent threats against us. I made this point to CNN’s Jim Acosta during an intense exchange we had in the White House press briefing room:
The media has attacked me personally on a number of occasions, including your own network; said I should be harassed as a life sentence; that I should be choked.… When I was hosted by the Correspondents’ Association, of which almost all of you are members, you brought a comedian up to attack my appearance and called me a traitor to my own gender.… In fact … as far as I know, I’m the first press secretary in the history of the United States that’s required Secret Service protection.… The media continues to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration, and certainly we have a role to play, but the media has a role to play for the discourse in this country as well.
After my briefing, Rush Limbaugh weighed in on his radio show: “Amen! This woman is great. She is fearless!” Rush was a legend and a hero in the conservative movement, and his support meant a lot to me. I watched Hannity with the president on Air Force One later that evening and he pointed at me and said, “You were amazing today. You were so tough that I’ll have to be even harder on them at my rally tonight … it wouldn’t be right to let you be tougher!” He laughed and then said to the group, “My Sarah—she is beautiful. I love her, the first lady loves her.” The staff in the room on Air Force One applauded.
On my first day with Secret Service detail I was escorted in a black SUV to the White House. I had grown up in the Governor’s Mansion with my dad’s Arkansas State Police security detail and after a year and a half at the White House I had spent a lot of time around the men and women of the Secret Service, but this was something I hadn’t really anticipated when I took a job in the Trump White House. There were roughly a dozen agents who were part of the detail assigned to me. They rotated time with me, but someone was with me twenty-four hours a day and someone at my house twenty-four hours a day as well. It took some getting used to but I was thankful for their protection. The team assigned to me could not have been nicer or more gracious. I am pretty sure when they signed up to be part of the USSS that protecting the press secretary was not high on their wish list of assignments. My kids thought it was the greatest thing in the world to ride around with the agents and ask them thousands of questions—I often teased them that we were planning a cross-country family road trip. The agents laughed but I am pretty sure they were requesting transfers on the off chance it might happen! I came to be friends with the team that was with me. I joked with them about their inability to find decent music on the radio, and my kids and I baked them cookies as they sat guard outside our home. We tried to make them feel welcome and let them know how much we appreciated their service. Their presence made us feel safe and because they were there we started getting out again. Our family will be forever grateful for the kindness and the protection the agents showed us.
It was not a good feeling to be kicked out of a restaurant in front of my family or to need Secret Service protection because of violent threats made against me, but I was determined not to be angry or bitter about it. One of the most important things about being a Christian is recognizing that God loves us no matter what. Nothing we do can ever change the fact that God loves us unconditionally. Only by recognizing this beautiful truth about God’s love for us—to the point of His Son’s death on the cross—can we find it within ourselves to love others unconditionally as well. America is divided, and we must look to God and start loving and forgiving each other—particularly those who don’t deserve it. None of us deserve God’s love either but He loves us anyway. I wouldn’t have made it long as White House press secretary if I carried the burden of anger and hate in my heart toward those who attacked and persecuted me. My faith liberated me to face the liberal mob with a spirit of love and forgiveness and stay focused on doing my job.
On that first day with Secret Service protection, the agents escorted me to the entrance to the West Wing and I walked to my office. Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any crazier, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, setting up one of the administration’s biggest fights yet for the future of the Supreme Court.
I sat in the Oval Office as the president called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The president told McConnell he was committed to picking a nominee from the list of conservative judges he promised to choose from during the campaign. McConnell said he favored Judge Amul Thapar from his home state of Kentucky, who served on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, but was comfortable with anyone on the president’s list.
The next day the president met with Senators Chuck Grassley, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Joe Manchin, Joe Donnelly, and Heidi Heitkamp to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy, and internally the president and our team agreed on a plan to strike quickly. The president would interview the candidates on his short list over the weekend, decide on the nominee, and announce his pick on the Monday after the Fourth of July weekend. I announced the SCOTUS nomination team, led by White House Counsel Don McGahn; Raj Shah, my principal deputy who was taking a leave from the press team; and Justin Clarke, who had been running intergovernmental affairs and then the office of public liaison. I briefed that afternoon and said the president was considering candidates to fill the vacancy “who have the right intellect, the right temperament, and will uphold the Constitution.” The president met with each of the final SCOTUS candidates, including Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, and Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals Judge Raymond Kethledge. He was definitely leaning toward Kavanaugh throughout the process, but also liked Judge Barrett on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The president asked me several times who I liked. I said I liked all three but was partial to Barrett, the young, conservative mother of seven, but added that Kavanaugh might be easier to confirm. I guess you could say I misread that one—but there’s no telling what crazy lies Democrats would have manufactured about her!
On Monday, President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. He told me his decision, a closely guarded secret, earlier that day ahead of the 9:00 p.m. prime-time announcement. I spent the afternoon working with the nomination team getting prepared with a bio, talking points, and surrogates. I spent an hour on the phone calling through all of the major networks to get them ready to take the announcement live from the White House. As the clock struck 9:00 p.m., I turned to the president, gave him the cue, and said, “It’s time,” and he walked out and introduced Brett, his wife, and daughters to the nation. The country watched as Brett talked about his family and being his daughter’s basketball coach. Because Kavanaugh had worked in a senior position in the Bush administration there were a number of former Bush staffers in the crowd, something you didn’t see all that often in the Trump White House. It was standing room only and there was tremendous excitement over the nomination. Brett had impeccable legal credentials, had been vetted several times, was a great husband and father, and a man his friends and coworkers seemed to genuinely like and respect. Most conservatives believed Kavanaugh was a slam dunk.
But from day one, Democrats and the liberal mob were hell-bent on defeating Kavanaugh’s nomination at all costs. Sure enough, out of nowhere, the first Kavanaugh accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, went public. To prepare for the Senate confirmation hearings, members of the White House communications and counsel’s staff murder-boarded Kavanaugh in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. I played the role of Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and along with others fired tough questions at Kavanaugh:
“Did you ever attend a party with the accuser?”
“Did you ever black out drinking in high school?”
During the first round of questions Kavanaugh was nervous and sounded too scripted. Our team of questioners was relentless. Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine made him crack first and you saw a glint of real anger in his response. Bill asked when he had lost his virginity and when he first had sex with his wife. It was uncomfortable for everyone in the room, but we knew there was no subject matter too degrading or too humiliating for the Democrats to ask him about. Here was someone who had been praised as a man of high integrity and character, and here we were, many of us only having met him once or twice for a few minutes, interrogating him about the most intimate details of his personal life. We had to do it. It was the only way to get him prepared for the hearings. To throw him off and make him angry, I interrupted his response about the impact of these accusations on his family and said, “With all due respect, Judge, you think you’re the victim here? An innocent woman said you sexually assaulted her. Explain to me why you’re the victim?” Kavanaugh got angry, teared up, and said, “You ask my daughters about that.” By the last half of the prep I felt a little better but still worried how it would all play out and how Brett would withstand the merciless attacks from the Senate Democrats.
I did Good Morning America and Fox & Friends to make the case for Kavanaugh. Another woman, represented by attorney and soon-to-be-disgraced-felon Michael Avenatti, accused Kavanaugh of drugging and gang-raping her and other women in high school. It was preposterous—a new, desperate low from the liberal mob. Later in the day the gang-rape accuser’s ex-boyfriend—a registered Democrat—came forward to say he had to file a restraining order against her. He told Politico: “Right after I broke up with her, she was threatening my family, threatening my wife, and threatening to do harm to my baby at that time.… I know a lot about her.… She’s not credible at all.”
I traveled with the president to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, and in between bilateral meetings with foreign leaders, we waited in a holding room. I talked to Raj, who had sat in for Kavanaugh’s first interview with Martha MacCallum of Fox News. The interview had been pretaped, and included Brett’s wife, Ashley, as well. Raj walked me through the highlights of the interview to pass along to the president, including a few details that were a bit uncomfortable for me to share with him, like when Kavanaugh had sex for the first time. The president told me to get Kavanaugh on the phone, and said to him, “Brett, I heard the interview went well. Hang in there. I am with you all the way. Keep fighting.”
I did The Today Show from New York, and when pushed about how I felt personally about the accusations against Kavanaugh as a woman and as a mom, I said, “I’m often asked about being a parent. ‘Sarah, you have a daughter.’ I also have two sons, and I wouldn’t want a false accusation to be what determines the rest of their life.”
I flew back on Air Force One to Washington, watching Dr. Ford testify before the Senate with the president, and then joined the president on Marine One to fly to the White House. Kavanaugh categorically denied the allegations and in a powerful moment, he shared that his young daughter suggested their family pray for Dr. Ford. “That’s a lot of wisdom from a ten-year-old,” Kavanaugh said, on the verge of tears.
After Kavanaugh’s opening statement I called the president and said, “Kavanaugh just saved himself.”
“Did you cry?” the president asked.
“Yes.”
“I knew it,” the president said. “You’re softer than people think.” He laughed.
“Did you cry?” I asked him.
“You know I’m not a crier,” he said. “But I’m not going to answer that.”
We could sense the tide turning for Kavanaugh, and later in the hearing Senator Lindsey Graham eviscerated the Senate Democrats.
“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020.… When you see Sotomayor and Kagan, tell them that Lindsey said hello because I voted for them. I would never do to them what you’ve done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn’t have done what you’ve done to this guy!
“Boy, you all want power. God, I hope you never get it. I hope the American people can see through this sham. That you knew about it and you held it. You had no intention of protecting Dr. Ford; none.
“She’s as much of a victim as you are. God, I hate to say it because these have been my friends. But let me tell you, when it comes to this, you’re looking for a fair process? You came to the wrong town at the wrong time, my friend.
“Would you say you’ve been through hell?” Graham asked.
“I’ve been through hell and then some,” Kavanaugh said.
“The one thing I can tell you you should be proud of—Ashley, you should be proud of this—that you raised a daughter who had the good character to pray for Dr. Ford,” Graham said.
“To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics.…
“I hope you’re on the Supreme Court, that’s exactly where you should be.”
It was a standout assertion by Graham and one of the biggest moments of the hearing. Graham, who had not always been popular among conservatives or Trump voters, was now celebrated as a hero.
After the hearing, I drafted a statement with the team for the president, and he made a few revisions, then fired it off: “Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search- and-destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!”
I went on Fox News Sunday to make the case for Kavanaugh and did a press briefing from the White House:
“On the night President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Senator Schumer declared the Democrats would oppose this nomination with everything they had. Before a single document was produced, a single meeting with the senator, or a hearing was ever scheduled, Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats telegraphed a strategy to throw the kitchen sink at the Judge with no regard for the process, decency, or standards. They’re not opposed to Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial views; they’re literally trying to undercut the voice of the American people when they elected Donald Trump.
They have questioned his legitimacy, and casually tossed around vicious accusations of perjury—all false and baseless. But now they’ve sunk lower, as they sprang these 11th-hour accusations and a full-scale assault on Judge Kavanaugh’s integrity.
This is a coordinated smear campaign. No evidence, no independent corroboration, just smears. Here are just a few of the examples:
Chuck Schumer said, and I quote, “There’s no presumption of innocence or guilt.” Chris Coons, who sits on the committee, said Kavanaugh, and I quote, “now bears the burden of disproving these allegations, rather than Dr. Ford and Ms. Ramirez.” Mazie Hirono, who also sits on the Committee, said that Judge Kavanaugh does not deserve the presumption of innocence because of his judicial views.
One thing is clear: Democrats want to block Kavanaugh and hold the seat open until the 2020 election. This is about politics and this is about power—pure and simple. And they’ve destroyed Judge Kavanaugh’s reputation, undermined Dr. Ford’s privacy, and tried to upend our traditions of innocence until proven guilty in the process. It’s a complete and total disgrace.
We will receive and submit the FBI’s supplemental background investigation on his nomination to the Senate. As Leader McConnell said, Judge Kavanaugh deserves a prompt vote and we expect him to get one.
After my briefing, I returned to my office to find Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Bill Shine, Jared Kushner, Director of Presidential Personnel Johnny DeStefano, and Raj Shah all there waiting for me. They applauded as I walked in.
On Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski said I was “rotten to the core” for defending Kavanaugh. White House Communications Director Bill Shine, furious at the nastiness from some of the MSNBC anchors toward women in the Trump administration, called Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC. Shine told Griffin that the White House wasn’t going to put anyone from the administration on MSNBC or NBC until further notice, saying, “You’re not going to continue harassing women in the White House this way.”
“Sarah hit a nerve over here,” said Griffin.
“You hit a f—— nerve over here!” Shine yelled and hung up the phone.
I did Fox News’s America’s Newsroom and said, “We stand 100 percent with Brett Kavanaugh.… It’s time for the Senate to vote.”
In the Oval after that appearance, the president told Kelly it was time to give me a raise. Kelly laughed and reminded him that as “assistants to the president” we’d already hit our pay ceiling as senior White House officials.
The next day the president traveled to Mississippi to do a rally for Cindy Hyde-Smith, who was running in a special election for the US Senate. Up until this point the president and Republican leaders had been fairly diplomatic in their statements about the Kavanaugh accusers and the process. But the president had had enough. At his rally the president questioned the credibility of the Ford testimony. He pointed out all the questions she couldn’t answer and that there was no one to corroborate her story. The crowd roared with approval. They’d had enough, too. It was a galvanizing moment. Republicans—including many Bush administration officials and former Never Trumpers—rallied behind Kavanaugh and were proud of the president for loyally sticking with him.
Ahead of the vote, Senator McConnell took to the Senate floor and said:
Nobody is supposed to be guilty until proven innocent in the United States of America.… Who among us would not have been outraged by having a lifetime record dragged through the mud with accusations that could not be proven.…
So, let’s reclaim this moment for what it should be—a chance to elevate a stunningly talented and impressive jurist to an important office for which he is so well-qualified.… We have a chance to do good here and to underscore the basic tenent of fairness in our country. So I filed cloture on the nomination yesterday evening. And I will be proud to vote to advance this nomination tomorrow.
Not long after, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) announced she would be voting to confirm Kavanaugh and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he’d be doing the same, guaranteeing a majority for confirmation. On October 6, 2018, the Senate voted 50–48 to confirm Justice Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, cementing a tremendous legacy for the president and a better future for America.
I congratulated Justice Kavanaugh in the East Wing as we did the walkthrough before the official White House reception, but during our conversation I was interrupted by Raj, who told me the president needed to see me in the residence. I walked upstairs and spent the afternoon working with the president on his speech. We were in the Treaty Room. It was dimly lit and had a massive Victorian table serving as the desk, which had previously been used as a cabinet meeting table under President Ulysses S. Grant. Many historic moments, including President William McKinley signing the peace treaty with Spain ending the Spanish–American War, had occurred in the Treaty Room. President Lincoln used the room as a pass-through to get from the Yellow Oval to the Lincoln Bedroom without being seen by anyone, and Eleanor Roosevelt held press conferences for female reporters there. A few aides recommended toning down the rhetoric and said the president should not issue an apology to Justice Kavanaugh for the way he was treated by the Democrats and many liberals in the media, but I agreed with the president and said to leave it in. The president made a joke, and I laughed and hit him with a handful of papers on the arm. Bill Shine said, “You just hit the president … you’re lucky Secret Service didn’t see that.” As we finished up, Brett and his family walked into the room. They took photos with the president and visited about the attacks they’d endured.
The president had decided to posthumously award Justice Antonin Scalia with the Medal of Freedom. He wanted to tell his widow, Maureen, his plan that evening. As we waited in the Blue Room of the East Wing, he asked me to walk with him to let her know. The two of us walked over to her and the president said, “I have some news for you.” President Trump told her that Justice Scalia, her late husband, would receive the Medal of Freedom. Maureen teared up as I held her hand.
Back in the room before the reception, I visited with attendees as we waited. I talked to Justice Neil Gorsuch and he joked, “Why didn’t I get a band at my reception?” I said, “With all due respect, sir, we couldn’t find the light switch in the White House bathroom at that point.”
Justice Clarence Thomas told me, “You’re my favorite, you never back down, but next time you go to The Red Hen let me come with you and I’ll set them straight.”
Bryan joined me at the reception. In the East Room, the president took the stage at 7:03 p.m. EDT:
Members of Congress, members of the cabinet, honored guests, and fellow Americans: It is my privilege to address you tonight from the East Room of the White House.
We are gathered together this evening for a truly momentous occasion. I have long been told that the most important decision a president can make is the appointment of a Supreme Court Justice. Well, in just a few moments, we will proudly swear in the newest member of the United States Supreme Court: Justice Brett Kavanaugh.…
On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure.
Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency, and due process.
In our country, a man or woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. And with that, I must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent.
Margaret and Liza, your father is a great man. He is a man of decency, character, kindness, and courage who has devoted his life to serving his fellow citizens. And now, from the bench of our nation’s highest court, your father will defend the eternal rights and freedoms of all Americans.
In the battle for the Supreme Court, the liberal mob had been defeated. We had prevailed. The mood at the White House was euphoric. That night our team went to the Trump International Hotel and celebrated one of the most consequential victories of the Trump presidency—a more conservative Supreme Court—a defining legacy that would endure long after our departure from the White House.