Trump at GOP rally condemns ‘ruthless tactics’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Saturday turned his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh into a rallying cry for Republicans to vote in November, saying they can help reject the “ruthless and outrageous tactics” he says Democrats used against the judge.

“We see this horrible, horrible, radical group of Democrats. You see what’s happening right now,” Trump said at a rally with thousands of supporters in West Virginia. Trump won the state in 2016 by 42 percentage points and remains popular there.

“And they’re determined to take back power by any means necessary. You see the meanness, the nastiness. They don’t care who they hurt, who they have to run over to get power,” he said.

“We’re not going to give it to them,” Trump said.

Kavanaugh, the federal appeals judge Trump nominated to the nation’s highest court, appeared headed for confirmation until California professor Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers in Maryland in the 1980s. Kavanaugh denied her accusations and those of two other women who since have accused him of sexual misconduct.

Ford initially made her claims in a confidential letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But the letter was leaked after Kavanaugh’s initial confirmation hearing before the committee, and Ford then told her story to The Washington Post.

Feinstein denied being the source, but Trump blamed her for the leak and mocked her at the rally, telling supporters to remember her answer when she was asked about the leak.

“The entire nation has witnessed the shameless conduct of the Democrat Party,” Trump said.

Feinstein responded to Trump on Twitter, saying she acted “consistent” with Ford’s wishes for privacy from the moment she received the professor’s letter.

“We kept her letter confidential and did not leak the contents or its existence to anyone,” she said.

Trump issued a fresh defense of Kavanaugh at the Wheeling rally, calling him “one of the most accomplished legal minds of our time” and saying he had suffered “the meanness, the anger” of Democrats.

The president urged his supporters to go to the polls on Nov. 6, when control of Congress is at stake, and vote Republican and “reject the ruthless and outrageous tactics of the Democrat Party.”

Trump appeared in Wheeling a day after he reversed course and ordered a new FBI investigation of Kavanaugh. Democrats and some Republicans had been asking for the new investigation, which will delay by at least a week a Senate vote on his confirmation.

In a dramatic appearance Thursday before the Judiciary Committee, Ford publicly accused Kavanaugh of groping her and trying to remove her clothing after he pinned her to a bed at a house party when she was 15 and he was 17. Following her, Kavanaugh denied the allegations and angrily defended himself.

The panel followed up Friday by voting 11-10, along strict party lines, to recommend that the full Senate confirm Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. But one committee member, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., balked at voting for confirmation without the investigation.

Flake asked for the investigation to be limited in scope and last no more than a week.

Trump agreed to an investigation after he had vigorously resisted asking the FBI — an agency he has repeatedly criticized — to look into the sexual assault and misconduct allegations.

Trump sounded familiar themes during the hour-plus rally, including talking about the economy’s performance, his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, the escalating trade war with China and his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Besides the Democrats, Trump leveled some of his harshest criticism at the news media, criticizing its coverage of his June summit with Kim and pointing out reporters in the WesBanco Arena. The audience broke into chants of “CNN sucks” when he again referred to journalists as the “enemy of the people.”

“They report incorrect news. They report phony news,” said Trump, who spent more than 80 minutes Wednesday answering questions from journalists at a news conference the White House scheduled during the U.N. General Assembly session in New York.

“When I say and come out with very, very strong statements about the media, I’m talking about the fake news media. They are truly an enemy of the people … This November you have a chance to reject these disgraceful political hacks.”

Trump’s visit to West Virginia was intended to help rally support for GOP candidates in the November elections, including Senate nominee Patrick Morrisey. The Democratic incumbent, Joe Manchin, faces a tough road to re-election in the state.

Manchin supports the new FBI probe of Kavanaugh but has yet to announce his position on the nominee. He voted for Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, and Trump would also like Manchin’s vote for Kavanaugh.

Trump again criticized Manchin for supporting Clinton, as well as for joining all Senate Democrats in voting against tax cuts Trump signed into law last year.

West Virginia, at least on paper, offers Trump’s GOP perhaps its best Senate pickup opportunity on Nov. 6, when Republicans hope to build on their tenuous 51-49 split in the chamber. But it’s unclear if the president’s popularity statewide is enough to deny Manchin a second full term.

Manchin is a former governor who has held elected office in West Virginia for much of the past three decades and has crafted a personal brand that has appealed to independents and some moderate Republicans.

Polls also give Manchin a significant lead over Morrisey, the state attorney general. Manchin has said he’ll work with Trump when it’s in West Virginia’s interest to do so and he’ll oppose the president when it is not.

Manchin is among a handful of vulnerable Senate Democrats who represent states that Trump won, including Montana’s Sen. Jon Tester and Missouri’s Sen. Claire McCaskill, who are in stronger-than-expected positions less than six weeks before Election Day.

Saturday’s rally was one of many Trump planned to headline as part of a commitment to campaign aggressively — he has said seven days a week, if necessary — to help the Republican Party overcome significant Democratic opposition and anger and keep control of both houses of Congress.

Campaign rallies are scheduled this week in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kansas.