William Rainford, dean at the Catholic University of America (CUA), has been suspended after tweeting in favor of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
A tweet sent on Sept. 26 from his official university Twitter account stated: “Swetnick is 55 y/o, Kavanaugh is 52 y/o. Since when do senior girls hang with freshmen boys If it happened when Kavanaugh was a senior, Swetnick was an adult drinking with & by her admission, having sex with underage boys. In another universe, he would be victim & she the perp!”
The tweet was in response to Julie Swetnick, who claims she was at parties where a teenaged Kavanaugh would “drink excessively and engage in highly inappropriate conduct, including being overly aggressive with girls and not taking ‘No’ for an answer.”
The problematic tweet caused a backlash among CUA students, and Rainford deleted the tweet amid push back and went on to issue an apology. CUA officials suspended Rainford from the position of dean for the rest of the semester.
Of course, Rainford tried to walk back from his asinine comment. He wrote a letter of apology. “I offer no excuse,” he wrote on Thursday. “It was impulsive and thoughtless and I apologize. … Victims who suffer assault and abuse need to be heard, respected, and provided treatment and justice.”
The university was quick to distance itself from the scandal. The president went on to say, “The Catholic University of America has no position on the Kavanaugh matter. But, let there be no doubt that our University, and particularly our National Catholic School of Social Service, has a special concern for every victim and survivor of sexual assault.”
