Presidential debate of polar opposites
EDITOR’S NOTE: Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as the 114th Supreme Court justice after this column was written.
Welcome to the Great Presidential Debate of 2018.
Our topic today is the credibility of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and her Senate Judiciary Committee testimony alleging that 36 years ago, she was sexually assaulted at a high school house party by the present nominee for justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Our two debaters should feel right at home here in Washington, for they are famously known to be politically polar opposites. We’ll hear first from our debater representing The Affirmative. (The first debater, a large man with impressively sculptured neon blonde hair, wearing a dark suit and bright red tie, begins speaking in a voice that seems restrained, respectful, non-confrontational and indeed presidential.)
“I thought her testimony was very compelling and she looks like a very fine woman to me, very fine woman,” he begins. “… But certainly she was a very credible witness. She was very good in many respects.”
Thank you. Now we’ll hear from our debater representing The Negative. (The second debater, a large man with impressively sculptured neon blonde hair, wearing a dark suit and bright blue tie, is definitely a polar opposite. He begins speaking not like a politician—and certainly not like a president—but sounding more like a Las Vegas standup comic; maybe the one from the ’50s and ’60s named Shecky, doing his warmup act before Frank, or Dean, or Sammy sings. The Negative debater even starts in a sneeringly derisive voice—he is mimicking Dr. Ford giving her testimony. He is ridiculing the fact that, like so many victims of an attempted sexual assault, she hadn’t known many key details.)
“Thirty-six years ago this happened. I had one beer, right? I had one beer. …How did you get home? I don’t remember. How’d you get there? I don’t remember. Where is the place? I don’t remember. How many years ago was it? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. What neighborhood was it in? I don’t know. Where’s the house? I don’t know. Upstairs, downstairs, where was it? I don’t know. But I had one beer. That’s the only thing I remember.”
The presidential debater representing The Negative has just captured the all-time record for negativity—but in a way that was not just unpresidential, but even unpleasant.
So now it’s time for me to fess up and acknowledge the obvious: As you’ve figured out, I’m not writing about a real presidential debate—and there weren’t two different debaters being quoted. But both polar opposite statements were real—they were spoken by President Donald Trump, just days apart.
Last Friday, Trump spoke those very presidential Affirmative quotations that supported Dr. Ford. He called her “very compelling,” “a very fine woman” and “a very credible witness” while sitting in the White House during a photo opportunity with Chile’s president. The following Tuesday, Trump spoke those very unpresidential Negative quotations that ridiculed Dr. Ford. He sneeringly mocked and dismissed her statements as a large rally crowd in Mississippi cheered him on.
Nothing in the way of factual evidence had changed in those four days. But there was one thing that may have led Trump to so sharply abandon all his noble comments supporting the college professor who had poignantly poured out those painful life details about what she said was a terrifying assault. After Ford’s emotional allegation—and Kavanaugh’s emotional vehement denial of them—several polls showed Republican candidates in some state races had gained ground on Democratic opponents.
So perhaps Trump believed he didn’t have to say nice things about Ford just to hold his political support among women voters. Maybe the president, who once was infamously tape-recorded bragging and laughing about how he could grab women by the genitals because he is rich and famous, could drop his pretense of saying nice things about a woman who testified so emotionally about how she was once attacked. And about her most searing memory of it is how her attackers laughed uproariously at her helplessness.
Perhaps Trump felt he was now free to be shatteringly contemptuous of the professor he just called “very compelling” and “very credible.” Because he thinks you don’t care—so he can get away with it. After all, it’s always about him.