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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSheldon Whitehouse Asks Brett Kavanaugh If He Has A Gambling Problem
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wants to know if Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trumps nominee to the Supreme Court, has a gambling problem.
Have you ever sought treatment for a gambling addiction? Whitehouse asks pointedly as part of a series of questions submitted this week about Kavanaughs unexplained personal debts.
In 2016, Kavanaugh reported credit card and personal loan debts of between $60,000 and $200,000. The Trump White House said these debts were the result of Kavanaugh buying baseball tickets for friends who later paid him back, as well as some spending on home improvements. The 2016 debts did not appear on Kavanaughs 2017 disclosure form because they were either entirely paid off or fell below the reporting threshold. Kavanaugh also reported between $60,000 and $200,000 in debt in 2006.
The fact that Kavanaugh accrued such high debts through baseball tickets attracted notice, but surprisingly, not a single senator asked him about the issue during his televised judiciary committee hearings last week.
Senators have limited time for questioning, Rich Davidson, Whitehouses spokesman, said in an email. Senator Whitehouse would have touched on many of these issues if he had additional time.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-debts-sheldon-whitehouse_us_5b982a36e4b0511db3e6e487
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)I was so anger over the appointment of Thomas to SCOTUS. I am still not over it. Now, we que up for the appointment of a immoral gambler and dolt sycophant.
"You've got to know when to hold'em, what to throw away and what to keep."
Guilded Lilly
(5,591 posts)Within the Republican Party and they simply DO NOT give one holy crap that it is so openly corrupt.
Rhiannon12866
(205,529 posts)VOX
(22,976 posts)Sorry, cant link (thru subscription app), but this the meat of the article.
Relentless Moral Crusader Is Relentless Gambler, Too
The New York Times
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
May 3, 2003
William J. Bennett, author of ''The Book of Virtues'' and one of the nation's most relentless moral crusaders, is a high-rolling gambler who has lost more than $8 million at casinos in the last decade, according to online reports from two magazines.
The Washington Monthly said on its Web site that ''over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a 'preferred customer' at several of them, and sources and documents provided to The Washington Monthly put his total losses at more than $8 million.''
In an article that depends on much the same reporting, the online version of Newsweek said that 40 pages of internal casino documents show that Mr. Bennett received treatment typical of high-stakes gamblers, including limousines and ''tens of thousands of dollars in complimentary hotel rooms and other amenities.''
Mr. Bennett, who has served Republican presidents as education secretary and drug czar, declined to be interviewed today by The New York Times, with a spokesman saying that he needed to digest the articles before responding.
<snip>
The magazines said that in one two-month period, Mr. Bennett wired one casino more than $1.4 million to cover his losses.