'A SCARY TIME' TO BE A GUY IN THE US

Prez: Men now guilty 'til proven innocent

President Trump lamented Tuesday that “it’s a very scary time for young men in America” when asked about sexual-assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“It’s a tough thing going on. It’s a very scary situation where you’re guilty until proven innocent. My whole life, my whole life, I’ve heard you’re innocent until proven guilty,” Trump told reporters before boarding Marine One for a speaking engagement in Philadelphia.

“But now you’re guilty until proven innocent. That is a very difficult standard.

“I say it’s a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something they may not be guilty of. This is a very, very difficult time.”

Trump later amped up his rhetoric at a Mississippi rally when he whipped a crowd into a frenzy by mocking last week’s Senate testimony by Kavanaugh’s primary accuser, Christine Blasey Ford.

“What neighborhood was it in. ‘I don’t know.’ Where’s the house? ‘I don’t know.’ Upstairs, downstairs? ‘I don’t know.’ ‘But I had one beer, that’s the only thing I remember,’ ” the president said, mimicking some of Ford’s answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday. He got wild applause.

He also railed at what he believes Ford’s allegations and Democrats have done to the judge.

“And a man’s life is in tatters, a man’s life is shattered . . . They destroy people, they want to destroy people. These are really evil people and then you see the people who are doing it,” he said.

A short time later, one of Ford’s lawyers, Michael Bromwich, called the president’s comments at the rally “a vicious, vile and soulless attack on” her.

Trump’s appearance in Mississippi came just hours after reports emerged that the FBI would be wrapping up its investigation of the allegations leveled against Kavanaugh (inset, far left) by Ford and a Yale acquaintance of the judge, Deborah Ramirez.

The Wall Street Journal and NBC News cited sources saying the probe, which began in earnest Saturday, would be finished by Wednesday morning, despite agents being given a full week to conduct it.

A day earlier, Trump said the FBI could interview anyone it deemed necessary, but agents had spoken to only four people: Kavanaugh’s high-

school classmates Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth, Ford’s highschool classmate Leland Keyser and Ramirez, who accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself at a boozy Yale party in the 1980s.

Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee that a drunken Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and groped her at a teen drinking party and that Mark Judge was the only other person in the room.

Kavanaugh has denied all the allegations.

Lawyers for Ford, a California psychology professor, said they’ve contacted the FBI repeatedly but have gotten no response.

“It is inconceivable that the FBI could conduct a thorough investigation of Dr. Ford’s allegations without interviewing her, Judge Kavanaugh, or the witnesses we have identified in our letters to you,” Bromwich and Debra Katz wrote to FBI Director Chris Wray Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, an attorney for Ramirez said he’s seen no indication that the FBI has reached out to any of the 20 people who Ramirez told them may be able to corroborate her account. The lawyer, John Clune, said Ramirez was interviewed by the FBI on Sunday and provided agents with the witnesses’ contact numbers.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said, “What I can tell you with certainty is we’ll have an FBI report this week and we’ll have a vote this week.”

He later said, “We’ll get an FBI report soon. It will be made available to each senator, and only senators will be allowed to look at it.”

And Sen. Lindsey Graham offered Trump a novel option should the Senate fail to confirm Kavanaugh.

“If his nomination were to fall short, I would encourage President Trump to renominate Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” the South Carolina Republican said in a statement.

“It would — in effect — be appealing the Senate’s verdict directly to the American people.

“The midterm elections are only 35 days away and a new group of senators may view Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination very differently after hearing from the voters in their states,” Graham went on.