Republicans set Friday committee vote on Kavanaugh
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump denounced Democratic efforts to block Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation as a cynical “con job” on Tuesday and launched a dismissive attack on a second woman accusing the nominee of sexual misconduct in the 1980s, asserting she “has nothing.”
With a Thursday hearing set in which Kavanaugh and chief accuser Christine Blasey Ford are to testify, the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled its own vote on Kavanaugh for Friday, and Republican leaders laid plans that could keep the full Senate in session over the weekend and produce a final roll call soon after.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Republican chairman of the committee, said Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell will be brought in to handle questioning of Kavanaugh and Ford.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Trump accused Democrats of using a “con game” to scuttle Kavanaugh’s nomination. Trump singled out Kavanaugh’s second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who told The New Yorker that at a party as Yale freshmen in the 1980s, a drunken Kavanaugh exposed himself to her. Kavanaugh denies her allegation.
“She said well it might not be him, and there were gaps, and she was totally inebriated and all messed up,” Trump told reporters. “This is a con game being played by the Democrats.” He added, “They don’t believe it themselves.”