Trump: Kavanaugh is the one being 'assaulted'
President Trump on Monday continued to fume over a New York Times report of a new sexual misconduct allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was a freshman at Yale University.
“The one who is actually being assaulted is Justice Kavanaugh,” the president tweeted. “Assaulted by lies and Fake News! This is all about the LameStream Media working with their partner, the Dems.”
Trump’s defense of Kavanaugh comes just days after the Times published a previously unreported story about Kavanaugh’s freshman year at Yale, when a classmate says he saw Kavanaugh with his pants down at a “drunken dorm party” and watched as friends “pushed his penis into the hand of a female student.” The alleged incident, which echoed a similar allegation that emerged during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, was reported to the FBI during the confirmation process, but the FBI did not investigate, the Times said.
But in an editor’s note that was added to the story after its publication, the paper noted that the alleged victim in the new accusation “declined to be interviewed” for the book from which the article was adapted, and that “friends say that she does not recall the incident.”
Trump, apparently quoting a “Fox & Friends” segment, called it a “walk back.”
“Just Out: ‘Kavanaugh accuser doesn’t recall incident,’” the president tweeted. “DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT THESE HORRIBLE PEOPLE WILL DO OR SAY. They are looking to destroy, and influence his opinions — but played the game badly. They should be sued!”
Last October, the Senate voted narrowly to confirm Kavanaugh to the nation’s highest court, ending a bitterly divisive nomination fight that included allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied.
The accusers included Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her at a party when they were teenagers, and Deborah Ramirez, who Kavanaugh allegedly exposed himself to at another “drunken dorm party” when they were freshmen at Yale. According to the Times, Kavanaugh “pulled down his pants and thrust his penis at her, prompting her to swat it away and inadvertently touch it.”
Ramirez’s legal team provided the FBI with “a list of at least 25 individuals who may have had corroborating evidence,” the Times wrote. “But the bureau — in its supplemental background investigation — interviewed none of them, though we learned many of these potential witnesses tried in vain to reach the F.B.I. on their own.”
Ramirez did not testify in the confirmation hearings.
In light of the Times story, several Democratic presidential hopefuls — including Elizabeth Warren, Julián Castro and Kamala Harris — called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment.
“I sat through those hearings,” Harris tweeted Sunday. “Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people. He was put on the Court through a sham process, and his place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice. He must be impeached.”
The president responded in kind.
“Now the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favorite word, impeachment,” Trump tweeted. “He is an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY. Such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning Liberal!”
The president added: “Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue. The lies being told about him are unbelievable. False Accusations without recrimination. When does it stop? They are trying to influence his opinions. Can’t let that happen!”
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