No, a photo does not show Brett Kavanaugh passed out from drinking


Kavanaugh emotional tight photo
Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP)

Brett Kavanaugh’s drinking habits were a key theme in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Kavanaugh said he drank beer in high school, but denied ever drinking to the point of blacking out. An image making the rounds on social media tries to disprove that point by showing a drunk Kavanaugh passed out from too much drinking.

But the photo does not show Kavanaugh.

“Never been passed/black out drunk, huh…. #kavanaugh,” the caption on a Facebook image reads. The photo on the left shows a young man holding two beer bottles apparently passed out on a couch, with the year 1982 beneath it. The photo on the right shows Kavanaugh now, with 2018 written below it.

Google Docs Image

The photo on the left is not actually Kavanaugh in 1982. It is a stock photo from Getty Images, found in their creative images bank. It is captioned “portrait of a young man asleep on the couch after drinking too much beer.”

Getty was only founded in 1995, and there is no indication that the photo was taken prior to that date.

A search for photos of Kavanaugh in Getty Images yields no results prior to 1996, when Kavanaugh was an aide to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

The photo has appeared in multiple health articles warning of the dangers of binge drinking.

We rate this statement Pants on Fire!

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Pants on Fire

Says a photo shows Brett Kavanaugh passed out.
In a blog post headline
Friday, September 28, 2018

By
Manuela Tobias
Staff writer
October 2, 2018

Truth-o-meter Ruling

Pants on Fire!

Statement

Says a photo shows Brett Kavanaugh passed out.

Context

a blog post headline

Speaker/Target

Speaker: Bloggers

Statement Date

September 27, 2018
Our Sources

Facebook, According to Hank, Sept. 28, 2018

Getty, Portrait of a young man asleep on the couch after drinking too much beer

Snopes, Is This a Photograph of a Wasted Brett Kavanaugh?, Sept. 28, 2018

Getty Images, Brett Kavanaugh, accessed Oct. 2, 2018

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