Just 25% of the American people believe Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was telling the whole truth when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, according to an AP-NORC poll released Friday.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation came down to a dramatic hearing of he-said-she-said on Sept. 27, where Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified about her alleged assault in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh angrily denied the accusation. After a hasty supplemental background check by the FBI over the following week, which found no corroboration for the accusations, Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a narrow margin.
According to the poll by AP-NORC, 43% of Americans disapprove of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, compared to the 35% who approve. And 20% said they neither approve nor disapprove.
Just 1 in 3 Americans state they have a lot of confidence in the Supreme Court following Kavanaugh’s confirmation. According to a Gallup poll from the summer, prior to Ford’s accusation and Kavanaugh’s confirmation, faith in the Supreme Court wasn’t much higher then at around 37%.
When it comes to honesty, the AP-NORC poll states 31% of Americans say Kavanaugh was largely lying in his testimony, while 39% say he was mostly honest, but hiding something. Just 25% say he was completely truthful in his testimony.
These numbers are starkly different when divided by party affiliation. According to the poll, 6 in 10 Republicans say Kavanaugh was entirely truthful in his testimony, compared to fewer than 1 in 10 Democrats.
Regardless of party, Americans are roughly evenly divided on whether or not the Senate Judiciary Committee treated Kavanaugh fairly. When it comes to Ford, 42% said the committee treated her unfairly. For college-educated women, this number swells to nearly two-thirds.
None of the players in Kavanaugh’s confirmation got overwhelmingly good reviews: the poll states that President Donald Trump, Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, and the FBI each earned an approval rating of 32% or below, with Democrats earning the lowest of the set at 24%.
