'It was my civic duty': N.C. State professor reflects on his Kavanaugh testimony

Two weeks ago, Charles Ludington was best-known for being a history professor at North Carolina State University. But since Sept. 30, he's become well-known for something else: publicly sharing details about his friendship and drinking with Justice Brett Kavanaugh when they were both students at Yale University.

On Oct. 2, his parents reported receiving harassing voicemails in their home to the Chapel Hill Police Department. Ludington said he also got some calls to his work phone number that were obviously about his comments on Kavanaugh.

Despite the threats, he didn’t seem too concerned while talking about it.

“In some cases, it was just heavy breathing,” he said, jokingly comparing it to something from a B-level horror movie. “There were all kinds of expletives you probably can’t publish in The Daily Tar Heel about me as a traitor or my masculinity or about condemning a man for his college behavior.”

His page on the N.C. State History Department’s website has been temporarily removed.

But he doesn’t regret anything.

“My conscience is clear, and it wouldn’t be if I hadn’t spoken out,” Ludington said.

He didn't plan to get involved in Kavanaugh's hearings initially but said he knew Kavanaugh was lying about his college days when he saw his confirmation hearings. Ludington said he couldn’t sit by.

"It was my civic duty," he said.

He also questioned why others didn't speak out.

“When I saw two female classmates speak out, I said ‘Why isn’t any man speaking out about this?’” he said. “Because Brett’s implicating everyone who knew him in this series of lies.”

Clearly, he said, it didn’t make a difference.

“In the minds of people who imagined he was lying, I helped confirm their suspicions were correct,” he said. “But for the people who mattered — the Senate — it didn’t make much of a difference. They didn’t mind being lied to.”

He pointed out that he knew Kavanaugh’s claims of never drinking to the point of blacking out were false. Ludington also said he was lying about the terms in his yearbook. 

The FBI didn’t do a thorough job with the investigation, Ludington said. He believes the White House specifically directed investigators to look into sexual misconduct and not whether or not Kavanaugh was lying.

Aside from the initial calls and a few gloating ones when Kavanaugh was confirmed this weekend, Ludington’s life at N.C. State hasn’t changed very much.

“I still walk around campus just like before. Maybe I get a few extra looks from students, but broadly speaking, it’s the same old, same old,” he said.

But some students have been very supportive.

“Female students have come up and said, ‘Thank you for speaking up,’” he said. “A lot of women who have been assaulted or feel uncomfortable about the likelihood of it, for them, this whole proceeding has been something that has been very difficult.”

Now, he just wants to move forward.

“I have a lot of things to grade,” he joked.

He said he understands the frustration people feel toward Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but he doesn’t plan to focus anymore energy on responding — and he doesn’t think this is the end.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if, in the long run, more evidence comes out and Brett gets removed,” he said.

A "Believe Survivors" rally is set to happen on UNC’s campus Friday morning to protest Kavanaugh's confirmation and support Christine Blasey Ford, a UNC alumna. 

Almost 600 members of the Chapel Hill and UNC community also took out a full-page ad in The Daily Tar Heel last week to support Ford. The group also raised $630 for a local rape crisis center.

If the day ever comes that Kavanaugh gets investigated further, Ludington plans to continue living his daily life.

“It was never my goal to keep him from being confirmed,” he said. “My goal was only to say that he’s lying about his drinking.”

These lies, however, are disqualifying, he said.

@ampogarcic

city@dailytarheel.com

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