Trump Goes on Offense in Defense of Kavanaugh, Ford Ex Says She Knew How to Beat Polygraph
As still-uncorroborated allegations of misconduct continue to swirl around his Supreme Court nominee, President Trump defended Brett Kavanaugh by going on the offensive against his accuser.
At a rally in Mississippi Tuesday night, the president attacked the credibility of Christine Blasey Ford's claim that she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh when they were teenagers.
Mimicking Ford, Trump said, "How did 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."
Christine Blasey Ford's attorney replied with a tweet, calling President Trump's remarks "a vicious, vile and soulless attack."
A vicious, vile and soulless attack on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Is it any wonder that she was terrified to come forward, and that other sexual assault survivors are as well? She is a remarkable profile in courage. He is a profile in cowardice. https://t.co/UJ0bGxV1EZ
— Michael R. Bromwich (@mrbromwich) October 3, 2018
But an ex-boyfriend of Ford wrote a letter to Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Grassley, saying he once saw Ford explain in detail how to prepare to take a polygraph. But Ford said in last Thursday's hearing she'd never talked about how to take a polygraph test with anyone other than her lawyers.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, responding to a question from CBN News' Abigail Robertson, said it was Kavanaugh's life that is being destroyed by Democrats.
"This has been the most outrageous – as earlier colleagues put it – 'search and destroy mission' to just literally take out a man's reputation and ruin his family situation, friends; the whole effort is just despicable by any objective standard," McConnell said.
The FBI has not interviewed Kavanaugh or Ford. Her lawyers want her to do an interview, but the FBI reportedly believes it can rely on their lengthy testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) pointed out that the attacks on Kavanaugh have changed.
He wrote, "A notable shift occurred in the Left's anti-Kavanaugh campaign over the weekend. Attention has turned away from Christine Blasey Ford's allegations of sexual assault. Over and over we hear him described as 'angry,' 'belligerent' or 'partisan,' followed by the claim that his conduct at the hearing shows that he lacks a judicial temperament. You've got to be kidding me. Do the people making this argument really expect a man who until five seconds ago had an unblemished reputation to sit passively while his reputation is viciously and permanently destroyed?"
Or, to put it another way, some have noted that the allegations against Kavanaugh have gone from gang rape initially, to a New York Times story about how he threw ice during a dispute at a bar in college in 1985.
McConnell mocked that story, saying "what a bombshell." Republicans pointed out that one of the authors of that Times report had already attacked Kavanaugh on Twitter earlier this year.
Conservatives and others have been critical of both the media's coverage of the Kavanaugh case and the Democrats handling of it, while Democrats say they just want the truth about Kavanaugh's background. One thing both sides will get – a vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation by this weekend.
