Chris Cuomo has criticized Brett Kavanaugh for declining to shake the hand of a father whose daughter died in a mass school shooting earlier this year.
Referencing the Supreme Court nominee’s actions, the CNN host delivered a stark warning on the dangers of suppressing opposing opinions, remarking that Kavanaugh’s Tuesday confirmation hearing represented what’s “going wrong in our political culture.”
Footage shows the 53-year-old judge, who has been denounced for his extreme beliefs on gun regulations, turning his back on Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed by a gunman who opened fire at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School in February.
Since his daughter’s death, Guttenberg has been a vocal advocate for gun safety. He even testified earlier this year at an informal hearing for survivors of gun violence on Capitol Hill.
“I hope that in Kavanaugh’s mind, Guttenberg didn’t represent a set of beliefs that he finds so threatening that he couldn’t even make contact. That’s why the judge should explain,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo insisted that while he wasn’t indicting Kavanaugh, he refused to believe the position of the White House that the judge was “pushed away by security” rather than ignoring Guttenberg.
“He made a decision,” Cuomo said. “I’m not indicting the judge. I get that he’s a car pool dad and people say he’s a good man, I get it. But how we disagree matters. We cannot turn away from each other just because we don’t like what the other is saying.”
He continued: “You can’t silence opinions because you don’t like them. If you allow what you don’t like to be silenced today, you will never know for sure that what you believe won’t be silenced tomorrow. That’s not what America is. It can never be us.”