Over the weekend, Illinois Times editorial cartoonist Chris Britt published a cartoon that mocked Brett Kavanaugh’s youngest daughter for praying for Christine Blasey Ford. In the cartoon, titled “Kavanaugh’s Daughter Says Another Prayer,” Kavanaugh’s ten-year old daughter is seen asking God to forgive her “angry, lying, alcoholic father for sexually assaulting Dr. Ford.”
On Sunday, an anonymous Twitter user called attention to the cartoon and the tweet went semi-viral:
To Whom it May Concern at .@ILTimes:
— vbspurs (@vbspurs) September 30, 2018
I would like to formally lodge a protest at the disgraceful sketch by your cartoonist, Chris Britt, depicting the 10 year-old daughter of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
It contravenes every standard of decency in our society. Please remove it. pic.twitter.com/WWpI2f9NVA
At some time after others began to highlight the cartoon on Sunday afternoon, the Illinois Times deleted Britt’s cartoon from his official page on the paper’s website. Despite taking this measure, people continued to post comments under Britt’s other pieces on the site criticizing the cartoon. While one commenter hoped that the “vile” work would remain “scrubbed forever” from the site, another saw the “despicable” cartoon as evidence that “left-wing ‘journalists’ truly are the Enemy of the People.”
Regardless of the current backlash, Britt’s latest cartoon is in perfect keeping with his recent contributions to the Illinois Times, which largely appear to be centered around mocking President Trump and painting Republicans as sexual predators. Indeed, on September 20th, Britt published a cartoon titled “Predator Bus Stop” that depicted Judge Kavanaugh waiting to join Donald Trump and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on a “Trash the Women” tour bus plastered with bumper stickers encouraging men to rape and sexually assault women. Another Britt cartoon put out on the same day as the Ford-Kavanaugh Senate Judiciary Committee hearing showed a “Beer & Babes!”-promoting Kavanaugh about to be smashed by a massive #MeToo gavel.
Given the flood of negative coverage directed towards Kavanaugh from the mainstream media —including this past weekend’s USA Today article suggesting Kavanaugh is a potential child rapist who should “stay off basketball courts when kids are around” —Britt’s cartoon is just another tiny drop in that steady stream of attacks.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to remove a paragraph that said the cartoon was still published on Britt's Creators.com page. Creators took the cartoon off its website on Monday.