Nobody actually believes that if Kav responded to all these accusations with "I plead the 5th" that he would have come out looking better, do they?
Normally I'd agree with you, but Kav sounded like an unhinged manchild. That may not have hurt his presumed innocence, but it certainly hurt his appearance of basic competency.
So you stated before that coming from Ford's perspective and believing that she isn't lying, her behavior seems normal for someone in that situation.
Just for a moment, I'd like you to apply that same concept to him. Pretend for just a second that he truly believes he didn't do it. He's in front of congress after weeks of being accused of rape across the country. His family is receiving death threats. He knows he won't be able to go back to his normal hobbies. People are coming out of the woodwork to accuse him of all sorts of crazy things. Senators are calling a vote for him being "complicit in evil", and after all this drama and pain there's a chance that it will all be for nothing and he'll be unceremoniously dumped because it's politically safe going into the midterms, putting him in a position where his career which he's built over a lifetime suddenly is at a dead end. Is it really fair to call his response that of an unhinged manchild, given that perspective?
Yes it absolutely is fair. He's interviewing to be on the bench of the highest court in the land. The apex of his career choice. If he can't calm his ass down in the face of what is supposed to be a false accusation, then he isn't fit to make level headed decisions in SCOTUS.