President breaks silence with tweets on Kavanaugh accuser

Trump suggests ‘bad’ incident would have been reported.

WASHINGTON — After holding his tongue for a week, President Donald Trump criticized the woman claiming a decades-old sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, tweeting that if the episode was “as bad as she says,” she or “her loving parents” surely would have reported it to law enforcement.

Trump’s reproach of Christine Blasey Ford on Friday defied the Senate Republican strategy — and the advice of White House aides — of not disparaging her while firmly defending his nominee and the tight timetable for confirming him.

The comment came as the California psychology professor’s attorneys sought agreement from Republicans on terms under which she might testify at a Judi- ciary Committee hearing next week. That hearing, should it occur, could play out on national television and settle whether Kavanaugh’s nomination survives.

The president’s tweet brought rejoinders from Democrats and a mix of silence and sighs of regret from his own party. Repub- lican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who hasn’t declared her position on Kavanaugh, called the remark “appall- ing.”

Kavanaugh, the 53-year- old District of Columbia Cir- cuit Court of Appeals judge, has consistently denied the accusation from his teenage years. Ford, 51, says an ine- briated Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed during a high school party in the 1980s, muffled her screams and tried undressing her before she escaped.

Minutes after Trump’s tweet on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCo- nnell drew a standing ovation when he assured a gath- ering of evangelical activists that the conservative Kavanaugh would soon be a justice.

Acknowledging the tumult Ford’s accusation has caused, McConnell said at the Values Voter Summit, “Keep the faith, don’t get rattled by it. We’re going to plow right through and do our jobs.”

McConnell has wanted to get Kavanaugh confirmed before the court’s new term starts Oct. 1 — and before November’s elections. He still hopes to do so despite the emergence of Ford’s alle- gations.

Until Friday, Trump’s strongest comment had been an expression of incredulity that Kavanaugh had committed an assault. His rela- tively restrained responses had some White House aides believing they had tamed his notoriously undisciplined impulses.

“The president doesn’t need anybody to tell him. He does the right thing,” presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters Friday morning when asked if she’d advised him to not criticize Ford.

Minutes later he tweeted from Las Vegas, where he had spent the night after a political rally.

“I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immedi- ately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!” he wrote.

The remark infuriated many who’ve long argued that women are frequently overwhelmed, confused and ashamed by sexual attacks and keep silent or even bury the memory without confiding with anyone.

Ford has said she never mentioned the alleged incident to anyone until 2012, when she revealed it during a marriage counseling session with her husband.

“A highly offensive misunderstanding of surviving trauma,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N. Y ., tweeted about Trump’s attack. Sen Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called it “another disgusting attempt to discredit Dr. Ford,” while Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., tweeted, “It’s sad but not surprising that she’s been met with an utter lack of decency by elected leaders of this country.”

McConnell’s confident prediction of Kavanaugh’s impending confirmation came as the nomination seemed to be gaining momentum. GOP senators who’d voiced concern about Ford’s charges had stopped short of expressing opposition to Kavanaugh, and grow- ing numbers of Republicans said it was about time to vote.

Still, Kavanaugh’s fate remained unclear, with some saying that a hearing featur- ing him and Ford would be risky for the GOP.

Ari Fleischer, who was spokesman for President George W. Bush, said the tweet did not help party lead- ers corral moderates Collins and Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, whose support in the 51-49 GOP-run Senate would likely be pivotal.

“Nobody has anything w ired,” Fleischer said. “We’re watching events unfold. If she testifies, all bets are off.”

Brett Kavanaugh