Trump Backs Kavanaugh “All The Way”, Says Accusations Are “Totally Political”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Mon, 09/24/2018
In comments made to reporters outside the UN General Assembly, and in a radio interview with Fox Host Geraldo Rivera, President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed the latest allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh as “totally political” while also claiming that the roadblocks to his nomination may be the “single most unfair, unjust things to happen to a candidate for anything.”
Meanwhile, the president added that he continued to back his SCOTUS nominee “all the way.”
“And for people to come out of the woodwork from 36 years ago and 30 years ago and never mentioned it and all of a sudden it happens, in my opinion it’s totally political,” he said. “It’s totally political,” Trump told a group of reporters outside the UN as he was making his way inside for the General Assembly meeting that’s slated to begin Monday.
He also insisted that Kavanaugh was a “fine man,” with an unblemished past” adding that these women were “coming out of the woodwork” to impugn his reputation. Both Kavanaugh and the White House issued denials shortly after the report was published, according to CNN:
Kavanaugh said in a statement, “This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen. The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple. I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name – and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building – against these last-minute allegations.”
White House spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement, “This 35-year-old, uncorroborated claim is the latest in a coordinated smear campaign by the Democrats designed to tear down a good man. This claim is denied by all who were said to be present and is wholly inconsistent with what many women and men who knew Judge Kavanaugh at the time in college say. The White House stands firmly behind Judge Kavanaugh.”
During his interview with Rivera (which was taped before Kavanaugh’s second accuser came forward), Trump acknowledged that Republicans likely wouldn’t be able to convince any Democrats to vote for Kavanaugh, per the NYT, which received an advance copy of the interview.
Trump acknowledged that he would most likely not be able to persuade any Democrats to vote for Judge Kavanaugh, meaning that he would have to hold nearly every Republican to win confirmation in the narrowly divided Senate.
“We’ll get almost no Democrat,” he told Geraldo Rivera for the debut show of “Geraldo in Cleveland” on WTAM radio. “We may get a couple in states where I won by many, many points – you understand that – but we’ll essentially get no Democrat.”
However, before Ford’s allegations were made public, Trump said Republicans in Congress had hoped to win over a few red state Democrats.
At one point, the White House had hopes of winning the support of several Democratic senators running for re-election in states that Mr. Trump won, but that prospect seemed to vanish with the emergence of Dr. Blasey’s allegations. If no Democrats support Judge Kavanaugh, that means the Republicans, who hold a 51-to-49 majority with Vice President Mike Pence able to break ties, can afford to lose only one of their own caucus.
The Rest…HERE
