U.S. President Donald Trump apologized to the newest Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh for his “terrible suffering,” while Kavanaugh promised to be a team player during his swearing-in ceremony at the White House Monday evening.
“On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure,” Trump said during his introductory remarks at the ceremony. “Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process.
“[In] our country, a man or woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. You sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent.”
Trump was referring to the nomination process in which Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both in high school in the 1980s.
WATCH: Brett Kavanaugh sworn into the United States Supreme Court
Kavanaugh then took to the podium to give a speech in which he assured that he would work with the other justices to uphold the constitution and not be subject to partisan politics.
WATCH: Brett Kavanaugh: ‘I will always be proud to sit on Justice Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court’
“The Supreme Court is an institution of law. It is not a partisan or political institution. The justices do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle,” Kavanaugh said.
“The Supreme Court is a team of nine, and I will always be a team player on the team of nine.”
After his testimony, Kavanaugh remarked that Ford’s allegations amounted to a targeted attack on him by Democrats — remarks that were criticized as indicating that he may be a partisan judge on the Supreme Court.
WATCH: Brett Kavanaugh thanks senators, White House, law clerks and says ‘I’ll be forever grateful’
The confirmation process was “contentious and emotional,” Kavanaugh described, but he says he has “no bitterness.”
WATCH: Brett Kavanaugh thanks family and friends at swearing-in ceremony
Kavanaugh also made a point that all four of the law clerks that will work for him in the high court are women, saying it is a first of its kind.
WATCH: Brett Kavanaugh says all his newly appointed law clerks are women, a first for the Supreme Court
At the ceremony, Kavanaugh was sworn in by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who he will be replacing. Kavanaugh officially became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Saturday.
Brett Kavanaugh thanks family and friends at swearing-in ceremony