Trump: Dems use ‘con game’ on judge
President backs Kavanaugh, blasts women’s claims.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump accused Democrats on Tuesday of using a “con game” to try scuttling Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and disparaged the account of the second woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, saying she herself conceded she was “totally inebriated and all messed up.”
Trump’s remarks came as Republicans worked to shore up GOP support for Kavanaugh, whose march toward Senate confirmation has been rocked by allegations of decades-old sexual improprieties from two women. On Friday, Trump had mocked claims by Kavanaugh’s chief accuser of a sexual assault at a 1980s high school party, tweeting that she would have reported the incident to police if it was “as bad as she says.”
In remarks to reporters at the United Nations, Trump criticized Deborah Ramirez, Kavanaugh’s second accuser.
She told The New Yorker magazine that at a party both attended as Yale freshmen in the 1980s, a drunken Kavanaugh placed his penis in front of her and caused her to involuntarily touch it. She’s said she was inebriated as well and has admitted to holes in her memory of some details.
“She said well it might not be him, and there were gaps, and she was totally inebriated and all messed up,” Trump told reporters. “She doesn’t know it was him but it might have been him and ‘Oh gee, let’s not make him a Supreme Court judge because of that.’ This is a con game being played by the Democrats.”
Trump called Kavanaugh “just a wonderful human being” and suggested that Democrats were skeptical of Ramirez, saying, “They don’t believe it themselves.” He said rejecting Kavanaugh would be “a horrible insult” and “a very dangerous game” for the U.S.
Trump spoke two days before the Senate Judiciary Committee plans a hearing at which both Kavanaugh and his chief accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, are due to testify separately.
Fearful of letting the allmale roster of the panel’s GOP majority question Ford, Republicans have hired an outside female attorney to do it. The hire was confirmed by a GOP aide to the Senate Judiciary Committee who was not authorized to speak publicly. The name of the attorney was not released.
Ford has alleged Kavanaugh tried removing her clothes and covered her mouth to prevent screams after he pinned her on a bed during a high school party.
Kavanaugh, 53, a judge on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, has denied both women’s stories.
No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois said by detailing the alleged 1980s incident when she and Kavanaugh were high schoolers, Ford exposed herself to ridicule and attack “even by the president of the United States in his tweets.”
Despite the forceful rhetoric and solid Kavanaugh support by most Republicans, his backing from several GOP senators was unclear, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Arizona’s Jeff Flake and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski. With the GOP’s Senate control hanging on a razorthin 51-49 margin, defections by any two Republican senators would seal his fate if all Democrats vote “no.”
Asked Tuesday if there should be a fresh FBI background investigation of Kavanaugh, Murkowski said, “Well, it would sure clear up all the questions, wouldn’t it?” Democrats have repeatedly demanded a renewed FBI probe, but that’s been rejected by Trump and Republicans. Collins said she remained undecided about Kavanaugh.
One frequent Trump critic, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., was clearly leaning toward Kavanaugh.
“I go into the hearings with very positive feelings about him, and I hope Thursday goes well,” Corker told reporters.
Besides the allegations themselves, both parties must assess how the nomination fight is playing six weeks before an Election Day when Democrats could capture control of Congress.
On Monday, Ford advisers wrote to Judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., complaining that GOP staff had told them of the hiring of an unnamed “experienced sex crimes prosecutor” to interrogate Ford and requested a meeting
■ The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote Friday on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. The committee scheduled the vote as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday he was moving forward with Kavanaugh’s nomination.
■ Democratic Sen. Patty Murray says President Donald Trump is sending the wrong message by diminishing the account of Deborah Ramirez, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct while both were students at Yale. Trump said Ramirez acknowledges being drunk and having gaps in her memory, casting doubt on her account. Murray asked, “How many women have heard that before? How many women have kept their experiences quiet because they knew they would hear that?”
■ McConnell accused Democrats of railroading Kavanaugh by using decades-old, “vague, unsubstantiated and uncorroborated” claims of sexual misconduct. “Justice matters. Evidence matters. Facts matter,” said McConnell.
■ Protesters who oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation confronted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife at dinner Monday night, heckling them at their table at a Washington restaurant until they left. While the group of activists chanted, “We believe survivors,” a woman repeatedly asked Cruz whether he would vote in favor of Kavanaugh. “You have a delightful time,” Cruz told one protester as he tried to weave through the crowd to exit the restaurant. “God bless you,” he told another. BALANCED COVERAGE
The allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are divisive, and these types of controversial stories receive special treatment. We always try to present as much information as possible so that readers can use those facts to reach their own conclusions. To do that, we rely on a variety of sources that represent multiple points of view. Today’s coverage, for example, includes the reaction to the second Kavanaugh accuser’s account by President Donald Trump, and criticism of Trump by Senate Democrats. with “her.”
“This is not a criminal trial for which the involvement of an experienced sex crimes prosecutor would be appropriate,” wrote Ford adviser Michael Bromwich.
In a Fox News interview Monday night, Kavanaugh said he would not let “false accusations drive me out of this process.” Agreeing to a television interview was an extraordinary step for a high court nominee.
Kavanaugh said on the conservative-friendly Fox News Channel that he wasn’t questioning that Ford, his initial accuser, may have been sexually assaulted in her life. But he added, “What I know is I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone,” a remarkable assertion for a nominee to the nation’s highest court.