Trump’s mocking of Ford draws flak from undecideds
WASHINGTON — As lawmakers anticipated the FBI report on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, three GOP senators who could decide the conservative jurist’s fate rebuked President Donald Trump for mocking one accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, by mimicking her responses to questions at last week’s dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Their reactions left Republicans concerned that Trump had complicated their effort to cement Kavanaugh’s support.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters that Trump’s Tuesday night lampooning of Ford at a Mississippi campaign rally was “just plain wrong.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called it “wholly inappropriate and in my view unacceptable,” and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said on NBC’s “Today” show that the remarks were “kind of appalling.”
Those GOP senators, along with Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have yet to declare how they will vote on Kavanaugh.
“All of us need to keep in mind there’s a few people that are on the fence right now. And right now, that’s sort of where our focus needs to be,” said Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.
Even Trump ally Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said at an event hosted by The Atlantic magazine: “I would tell him, knock it off. You’re not helping,”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump’s insults of Ford marked a “new low.”
Trump drew laughs from supporters at a rally Tuesday night with his rendition of how Ford answered questions at last week’s hearing. “I had one beer — that’s the only thing I remember,” he stated inaccurately.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday echoed the president’s newly aggressive approach. She said Ford has “been treated like a Faberge egg by all of us, beginning with me and the president,” and said Trump was merely “pointing out factual inconsistencies.”
The FBI report was turned in to the White House on Wednesday night. All 100 senators, and a handful of Senate staff aides, will be able to read it, but it’s unclear if the public will see it.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is expected to read the report first, followed by his colleagues either individually or possibly in groups. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was among the senators to decry remarks by President Donald Trump that mocked Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford.
Lawmakers said senators and a small number of top aides would be allowed to read the report in a secure room in the Capitol complex. Preparations were under way for senators to sign up for time slots to review the document there.
According to a preliminary schedule, drafted with the expectation that the Senate would receive the report Wednesday evening, Republicans would read it for the first hour, starting at 8 a.m. Thursday, and Democrats would read it the hour after that, according to a person briefed on the plan.
While some senators from both parties have said they’d like at least a summary of the findings released, Senate
procedures call for such checks to be kept confidential. It’s unclear what will be released, other than through leaks.
“None of that stuff’s public,” Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters. “If you want people to be candid when they talk to the FBI, you ain’t going to make that public.”
Democrats also demanded that the FBI privately brief the Senate about the investigation before the chamber votes. McConnell rejected that request in a letter Wednesday to Schumer, saying Democrats would use it to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Meanwhile, hundreds of law professors signed onto a letter urging the Senate to reject Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
The letter was shared in a New York Times op-ed and signed by more than 650 law professors. The letter will be sent to the Senate on Thursday.
The letter says that in his hearing, Kavanaugh “displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for election to the highest court of the land.” The letter adds that Kavanaugh gave “intemperate, inflammatory” responses and was “discourteous” to senators.
Martha Chamallas, Ellen E. Deason and Kimberly P. Jordan, professors in Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, signed the letter, along with Mark R. Brown of the Capital University Law School.
Also Wednesday, the National Council of Churches, a large organization of Christian denominations, said Kavanaugh should step aside after showing “extreme partisan bias” at his confirmation hearing. The group said Kavanaugh has “neither the temperament nor the character” needed for the high court.