In a tweet she later deleted and apologized for, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert writer Ariel Dumas expressed pleasure at the damage done to Brett Kavanaugh’s life over the course of his confirmation to the Supreme Court.
“Whatever happens, I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life,” her tweet read. This was following a series of tweets from Dumas in which she quoted a variety of news outlets who attacked Kavanaugh for saying that the charges of sexual assault had “destroyed” him. One of the items she quoted stated that “the bar for a man’s ruin is, apparently, quite low.” Dumas also tweeted things Saturday like “Brett Kavanaugh is 100% gonna ask Justice Sotomayor to fetch him coffee.”
Fox News reports that following numerous responses attacking her comment, Dumas briefly made her account private so no one could read her posts without her permission. It was too late, however, as large numbers of Twitter followers had already taken a screen shot of the post. Twitter backlash continued through Saturday and into Sunday.
In a follow-up tweet on Sunday, Dumas apologized for her comment, blaming it on what have been an emotional couple of weeks for many across the nation.
“The last couple of weeks have been hard for the country and for me personally. The complexity of frustration, anger, and sadness can’t be accurately conveyed on twitter, and I regret my tone-deaf attempt at sarcasm in the wake of it.”
Comments in response to her apology were mixed.
Stephen Colbert ‘Late Show’ writer: ‘I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life’ https://t.co/2i6RN5rtQP
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 7, 2018
Brett Kavanaugh has been the target of many late night talk shows in recent weeks, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert among them. Daily Mail reported on Colbert’s acknowledgement that his show had spent a lot of air time on Kavanaugh, joking, “We have been talking about Kavanaugh since 1954, I think.” Playing on Kavanaugh’s multiple assertions during his testimony that he likes beer, the show also did a spoof beer commercial for “Kavanaugh beer.” They described it as having “great drinkability and supreme judgability.” The commercial continued with, “It’s the perfect beer for the judge who doesn’t want to be judged. No calories, no answers. That’s Kavanaugh.”
In Bill Maher’s Friday night broadcast of Real Time , Maher called Kavanaugh a liar and added that “he was a huge drunk.” He joked that, “They’re going to do it, they’re going to confirm Justice Red Solo Cup. And I’m going to join the Beach Week Ralph Club.”