Trump dismisses 'messed up' Kavanaugh accuser
Published Sep 26, 2018 08:50 am
By Agence France-Presse
President Donald Trump dismissed the latest accuser of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as "drunk" and "messed up" on Tuesday, as Republicans prepared for a potentially explosive hearing over his suitability.
US President Donald Trump, seen here at a meeting with Colombian President Iván Duque at the United Nations, questions the credibility of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's latest accuser (AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
Despite the swirling controversy over the nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a preliminary vote for Friday at 9:30 am (1330 GMT). If approved by the panel, Kavanaugh would still face a vote in the full Senate.
Taking the political lead in the high-stakes battle over the future of the court, Trump rejected a claim by Deborah Ramirez that Kavanaugh was the person who dropped his pants and thrust his penis in her face at an alcohol-fueled Yale University dorm party about 35 years ago.
He said Democratic support for her allegations, as well as those of Christine Blasey Ford, amounted to a "con game" to defeat a person he said was perfectly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court bench.
"The second accuser has nothing. She thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not," Trump told reporters in New York. "She admits that she was drunk. She admits that there are time lapses."
"Thirty-six years ago, nobody ever knew about it or heard about it, and now a new charge comes up and she said it might not be him, and there were gaps and she said she was totally inebriated, and she was all messed up," Trump said.
"The Democrats are playing a con game. They know it's a con game," he said. "It's a shame that you can do this to a person's life."
Second accuser
Trump's comments came two days before the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing in which Blasey Ford is expected to detail her allegation that Kavanaugh tried to tear her clothes off in an assault during a party around 1982, when both were students at elite private high schools in Washington.
Kavanaugh, who has strongly denied the charge, will separately appear at the hearing.
The charge has already delayed what was once though certain approval of his nomination, which is crucial to Republican hopes to turn the court sharply to the right for years to come, with huge implications for law on abortion rights and affirmative action programs.
But since Blasey Ford's charges, one and possibly two more women have come forth with similar allegations of sexual assault or abuse when he was young.
On Sunday, The New Yorker published Ramirez's story, which took place at Yale during 1983-84.
On Monday, Michael Avenatti, a lawyer who represents a porn star claiming to have had an affair with Trump, has said he is also representing a third Kavanaugh accuser, whose identity and story he said would be revealed on Wednesday.
And two former Yale classmates of Kavanaugh took issue Tuesday with his claims that he did not drink excessively or take part in abusing women during his university years.
US President Donald Trump, seen here at a meeting with Colombian President Iván Duque at the United Nations, questions the credibility of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's latest accuser (AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
Despite the swirling controversy over the nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a preliminary vote for Friday at 9:30 am (1330 GMT). If approved by the panel, Kavanaugh would still face a vote in the full Senate.
Taking the political lead in the high-stakes battle over the future of the court, Trump rejected a claim by Deborah Ramirez that Kavanaugh was the person who dropped his pants and thrust his penis in her face at an alcohol-fueled Yale University dorm party about 35 years ago.
He said Democratic support for her allegations, as well as those of Christine Blasey Ford, amounted to a "con game" to defeat a person he said was perfectly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court bench.
"The second accuser has nothing. She thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not," Trump told reporters in New York. "She admits that she was drunk. She admits that there are time lapses."
"Thirty-six years ago, nobody ever knew about it or heard about it, and now a new charge comes up and she said it might not be him, and there were gaps and she said she was totally inebriated, and she was all messed up," Trump said.
"The Democrats are playing a con game. They know it's a con game," he said. "It's a shame that you can do this to a person's life."
Second accuser
Trump's comments came two days before the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing in which Blasey Ford is expected to detail her allegation that Kavanaugh tried to tear her clothes off in an assault during a party around 1982, when both were students at elite private high schools in Washington.
Kavanaugh, who has strongly denied the charge, will separately appear at the hearing.
The charge has already delayed what was once though certain approval of his nomination, which is crucial to Republican hopes to turn the court sharply to the right for years to come, with huge implications for law on abortion rights and affirmative action programs.
But since Blasey Ford's charges, one and possibly two more women have come forth with similar allegations of sexual assault or abuse when he was young.
On Sunday, The New Yorker published Ramirez's story, which took place at Yale during 1983-84.
On Monday, Michael Avenatti, a lawyer who represents a porn star claiming to have had an affair with Trump, has said he is also representing a third Kavanaugh accuser, whose identity and story he said would be revealed on Wednesday.
And two former Yale classmates of Kavanaugh took issue Tuesday with his claims that he did not drink excessively or take part in abusing women during his university years.