Republicans Are Trying to Speed Up Brett Kavanaugh's Confirmation After a Second Woman Accused Him of Sexual Misconduct
As recently as this weekend, Republicans were still refining their defenses for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. By then, they'd resorted to 30-year-old calendars Kavanaugh produced that, incredibly, don't have an entry for "Party/Sexual Assault" and asking, rhetorically, "What boy hasn't done this in high school?"
Unfortunately, now they have a battle on a whole new front. On Sunday, The New Yorker released a new investigative report from Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer (the journalist behind the exhaustively researched book Dark Money about the Koch brothers) that features a second woman claiming to be the victim of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh. Deborah Ramirez was a classmate of his at Yale, and as can be expected in instances of abuse, she was hesitant to speak at first. Per The New Yorker:
In her initial conversations with The New Yorker, she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty. After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections to say that she remembers Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away. Ramirez is now calling for the F.B.I. to investigate Kavanaugh’s role in the incident. “I would think an F.B.I. investigation would be warranted,” she said.
Kavanaugh has, again, denied the allegations against him. But despite the story only coming out this weekend, members of Congress knew about the accusation as early as last week, with Senate Democrats receiving a tip from a civil rights lawyer. While they responded by pressing for an investigation, Republicans took a different approach:
Senior Republican staffers also learned of the allegation last week and, in conversations with The New Yorker, expressed concern about its potential impact on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Soon after, Senate Republicans issued renewed calls to accelerate the timing of a committee vote.
Of course, if these allegations are all false, one of the easiest ways to discredit them would be to get behind an FBI investigation. But Kavanaugh's popularity is sinking rapidly, with Fox News finding in a poll that he has the lowest approval rating of any nominee in their polling history. So instead delaying and risking more damage, late Sunday the White House issued a list of talking points to refute Farrow and Mayer's reporting.
Donald Trump said Monday that he still supports Kavanaugh and that the allegations were likely contrived by Democrats. Other conservative pundits have claimed that Democrats would oppose and slander any candidate Trump put forward. However, it's hard to take seriously since three Democrats in the Senate broke ranks to confirm Neil Gorsuch last spring.
