GOP activists hit at judge’s accusers
WASHINGTON — President Trump and conservative activists have diverged sharply from the careful messaging by GOP senators on the eve of tomorrow’s crucial Senate testimony by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of a sexual attack when they were teens.
President Trump and other conservatives galvanized in an all-out war against the accusers and Democrats in the wake of a second allegation against Kavanaugh by Yale college classmate Deborah Ramirez. Trump, who used more muted language in defending Kavanaugh and criticizing Ford for the timing of her allegation since she came forward, pulled no punches yesterday on Ramirez.
“The second accuser has nothing. … She admits she was drunk,” Trump told reporters at the United Nations assembly yesterday, referring to Ramirez’s New Yorker account of Kavanaugh putting his genitals in her face at a college party where both had been drinking. Trump dismissed her as part of a Democratic-led “con job” to keep Kavanaugh off the bench.
“She said she was totally inebriated and she was all messed up,” Trump said. “And she doesn’t know it was him, but it might have been him. ‘Oh, gee, let’s not make him a Supreme Court judge because of that.’ ”
The comments echo that of conservative activists like Judicial Crisis Network’s Carrie Severino, who called the allegations by Ford and Ramirez “a disgusting, politically motivated character assassination and last-minute smear.”
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to back off such harsh language as he worked to coalesce his 51-senator majority behind Kavanaugh, a recognition that Kavanaugh’s path to confirmation remained uncertain even as the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a vote to advance the nomination on Friday.
After some Republicans stressed the importance of carefully considering Ford’s testimony before making a decision, McConnell tried to allay their concerns and avoid making the all-male panel of GOP Republicans look like a firing squad when Ford testifies.
“I think we ought to take everyone seriously,” McConnell said, defending the decision to hire a yet-unnamed female staffer to question Ford.
“We’re looking for the truth here,” he said. “I don’t think because you happen to be a male you’re disqualified from listening to the evidence and making a decision based upon the evidence.”
Earlier, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told the New York Times: “We are now in a place where it’s not about whether or not Judge Kavanaugh is qualified. It is about whether or not a woman who has been a victim at some point in her life is to be believed.”
Still, McConnell expressed confidence that Kavanaugh would be confirmed to the nation’s highest court, telling reporters yesterday: “I’m confident we’re going to win.”