President Trump, at a campaign rally in Mississippi last night, derided and mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s recounting of details of the evening she alleges Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.
Making a joke of the painful testimony of a victim, he changed his voice to pretend he was her. “I had one beer!” he said, implying Ford could have been drunk during the time she said the attack took place.
Then Trump tried to put Ford on trial by pretending he was the prosecutor. ‘’How did you get home?” Trump asked at the rally. “I don’t remember,” Trump answered himself, again in a voice that was supposedly Ford’s. “How did you get there?” he asked. “I don’t remember,” he answered, still again in Ford’s voice. “Was it upstairs, downstairs, I don’t know, all I remember was the one beer,” the president said derisively.
Trump’s attacks on Ford last night stood in sharp contrast to what he had said last Friday at the White House when he said he was impressed by Dr. Ford’s “very credible” testimony.
Unlike Trump’s false recounting of Dr. Ford’s testimony at the rally last night, Ford herself, at the Senate hearing last week, accurately placed numerous individuals who were part of Kavanaugh’s circle of friends at the scene of the alleged crime. Her names match exactly the names entered by Kavanaugh himself on his own calendar.
Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who delayed the confirmation process by joining Democrats in calling for an FBI investigation of Ford’s claims, called Trump’s attacks last night “appalling,” while Ford’s lawyer castigated the president for what he called a “vicious, vile, and soulless attack.”
Trump’s attacks are less surprising than they are shocking since he, himself, has been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women.
Trump expressed “sorrow” last night at the cost of the controversy to Kavanaugh and implied that Ford was part of a conspiracy on the part of the Democratic Party and the #MeToo movement. “They destroy people, they are really evil people,” he said.
Even as he attacked Ford and spun his usual conspiracy theories last night, evidence mounted that, acting on his orders, the FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh has become nothing more than a sham.
It was reported on MSNBC last night that Elizabeth Razor, a former girlfriend of Mark Judge, whom Dr. Ford placed in the bedroom when Kavanaugh assaulted her, has offered a sworn statement to the FBI. At press time, the FBI had not accepted it.
Lawyers for Dr. Ford said last night that she has not been interviewed by the FBI.
Lawyers for Debbi Ramirez, the second accuser, say they provided the FBI with the names of more than 20 other possible witnesses against Kavanaugh and that none of them have been interviewed. Ramirez and her friends knew Kavanaugh during his years at Yale.
In addition to the problematic FBI “investigation” there is the evidence that surfaced two days ago, indicating that Kavanaugh both tampered with witnesses and concealed the tampering by lying to the Senate.
NBC procured text messages showing that Kavanaugh tried to get potential witnesses in his case to refute the Ramirez claims of sexual misconduct by him at Yale and that he lied under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he told the senators he did not know about the Ramirez allegations until they hit the press. The text messages show he knew about them well in advance and was preparing to rebut them.
It’s almost as if Trump checked off every conceivable bad box when he nominated Kavanaugh: Against a woman’s right to choose—check; Against a worker’s right to organize—check; Against constitutional guarantees of immigrant rights—check; Opposes special federal aid to Native Americans—check; Opposes special federal aid to native Hawaiians and Alaskans—check; Opposes financial regulations on banks—check; Opposes environmental protection laws—check; Opposes the Affordable Care Act—check; Favors discrimination against LGBTQ people—check; Favors public funds for private and religious schools—check; Thinks sexual misconduct is all in good fun—check; Favors the One Percent over the 99 percent, 99 percent of the time—check; Lies whenever he has to answer uncomfortable questions—check; In particular, lies to Congress and the Senate whenever he has to—check; Favors unlimited power of a lying president over the other branches of government—check. The list goes on.
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