Trump dismisses women’s allegations: ‘Unfair, unjust’
Kavanaugh: Nominee defends himself on TV — ‘Smears, pure and simple’ Senate: GOP leader says vote on confirmation will take place ‘in the near future’
President Donald Trump on Monday continued to stand behind his embattled Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, calling him “an outstanding person” and dismissing a second woman’s accusation of sexual misconduct as being part of an “unfair, unjust” political attack.
Trump, leaving the United Nations after a short morning meeting on the first day of the annual opening session of the General Assembly, stopped to answer reporters’ shouted questions about Sunday night’s New Yorker article reporting an allegation by a Yale University classmate, Deborah Ramirez, that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her 35 years ago while the two were freshmen.
The news has further roiled plans in the Senate Judiciary Committee for a vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Reflecting the potential threat to his nomination, Kavanaugh and his wife, Ashley, sat for an interview with Trump-friendly Fox News about the furor, to be broadcast Monday evening.
Trump, in his remarks, assailed the allega-
“I’m close, I’m very close (to a decision), but I’m not all the way there yet and professor Ford deserves to be heard.” — Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court
tions and emphasized his continuing support for his nominee: “There’s a chance that this could be one of the single most unfair, unjust things to happen to a candidate for anything. But I am with Judge Kavanaugh and I look forward to a vote.”
The president also cast doubt on Ramirez’s accusation — just as he did last week after Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, alleged an attack by Kavanaugh when they both were in high school — by questioning why she had not long ago publicly complained and sought legal action.
“For people to come out of the woodwork from 36 years ago and from 30 years ago … never mention it and all of the sudden it happens … in my opinion, it’s totally political,” Trump said. “It’s totally political.”
Kavanaugh, in a letter to the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, similarly called the allegation from Ramirez “another false and uncorroborated accusation from 35 years ago” and pledged that he won’t back down from his nomination.
“These are smears, pure and simple. And they debase our public discourse,” he wrote. “But they are also a threat to any man or woman who wishes to serve our country. Such grotesque and obvious character assassination — if allowed to succeed — will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from service.”
Ford, who came forward last week only after her previously confidential allegation was leaked, reinforced her accusation in her own letter to Grassley over the weekend.
“I have one motivation in coming forward — to tell the truth about what Mr. Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge did to me,” she wrote, also naming the Kavanaugh classmate who allegedly participated in the attack but has denied doing so.
“My sincere desire is to be helpful to persons making the decision” about Kavanaugh’s confirmation, she added.
“I look forward to your testimony,” Grassley wrote by hand on his otherwise formal, typed letter of reply.
The Kavanaugh controversy is likely to overshadow Trump’s week of meetings at the United Nations, where he is set to deliver his second annual address to the General Assembly today.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation path has already slowed. The Judiciary Committee rescheduled a Monday vote after lawmakers and attorneys for the judge’s first accuser, Ford, agreed over the weekend to hold a Thursday hearing at which both she and Kavanaugh would separately testify.
Republicans have been intent on confirming Kavanaugh ahead of November’s midterm elections, hoping the conservative’s placement on the nation’s highest court would animate Republican voters and avert a possible Senate takeover by Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in remarks on the Senate floor Monday, vowed that the Republican-controlled Senate would vote on Kavanaugh “in the near future.”
Echoing Trump and Kavanaugh, McConnell angrily condemned what he called a coordinated “smear campaign, pure and simple, aided and abetted by members of the United States Senate.”
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of two undecided Republican moderates who could decide Kavanaugh’s fate (the other is Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska), demurred when asked by the hosts of Showtime’s political program “The Circus” if she had
made up her mind how to vote.
“How could I decide before hearing the testimony of professor Ford?” Collins said. “I’m close, I’m very close, but I’m not all the way there yet and professor Ford deserves to be heard.”
Collins, who, like Murkowski, supports abortion rights, also said that she does not believe that Kavanaugh would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, which was her main point of concern about him before the misconduct allegations came out.
Nearly all Senate Democrats oppose Kavanaugh, but Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of several swing voters, told CNN that Thursday’s hearing will be important to his vote. The allegations are “very concerning,” he said, though Kavanaugh has a “right to clear his name.”
Given Republicans’ narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, a loss of just two votes against a united opposition would defeat Kavanaugh.
Activists opposing Kavanaugh organized a national walkout by sexual assault survivors, and on Monday hundreds of people packed the hallways of the Senate office buildings, particularly outside Collins’ suite.
According to the Senate historian’s office, the Senate has rejected only 12 Supreme Court nominees; more have withdrawn from consideration before a vote to avoid defeat.