Brett Kavanaugh snubbed Parkland shooting victim Jaime Guttenberg’s father, Fred Guttenberg, during the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for the Supreme Court nominee in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, September 4.
“Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended,” Fred tweeted. “Put out my hand to introduce myself as Jaime Guttenberg’s dad. He pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence.” (Seventeen staff members and students, including Jaime, were shot and killed after former student Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14.)
“Here is the photo of me trying to shake Kavanaugh’s hand,” Fred captioned a picture of the incident.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah responded to Fred’s tweet and denied that Kavanaugh rejected his hand. “As Judge Kavanaugh left for his lunch break, an unidentified individual approached him. Before the Judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened,” Shah tweeted.
Fred was quick to reply, “Incorrect. I was here all day and introduced by Senator Feinstein. No security involved. He turned and walked away.”
Elsewhere at the 53-year-old circuit judge’s hearing, women dressed as characters from The Handmaid’s Tale and a protest against Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and his stance on abortion broke out. Actress Piper Perabo was one of the almost two dozen protestors arrested at the hearing.
“I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings,” Perabo, 41, tweeted on Tuesday. “Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I can’t be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.”
