President Donald Trump on Monday appeared to abandon all pretense that he believes any part of the sexual assault allegations that two women have publicly leveled against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“The Democrats are working hard to destroy a wonderful man, and a man who has the potential to be one of our greatest Supreme Court Justices ever, with an array of False Acquisitions the likes of which have never been seen before!” Trump tweeted on Monday night, misspelling the word “accusations.”
Trump quickly followed this up with another tweet, writing, “REMEMBER THE MIDTERMS!” It is unclear exactly to whom the second tweet was directed. A little while later, Trump apparently deleted his earlier post and replaced it with one accusing Democrats instead of “False Accusations.”
The accusations Trump referred to come from two women who have both said Kavanaugh sexually violated them when they were teenagers.
California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that Kavanaugh held her down, covered her mouth and tried to undress her at a party when they were both in high school in suburban Maryland.
A woman who was a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale, Deborah Ramirez, said he aggressively exposed himself to her at a party during their freshman year. Kavanaugh has denied both allegations.
Nonetheless, the allegations have derailed Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, which had once appeared to be all but assured. Now the White House and the nominee are both engaged in a public relations battle with Senate Democrats and, increasingly, with Kavanaugh’s individual accusers.
When the Ford allegation first became public earlier this month, the White House and the president initially seesawed between defending Kavanaugh and trying to distance Trump and the Republican party from the scandal engulfing the nominee.
By the end of last week, however, Trump had reportedly decided not to withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination and to instead come out swinging against the accusations and the accusers.
On Monday, Trump repeatedly praised Kavanaugh in between meetings at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Both Kavanaugh and Ford are scheduled to testify before the Senate on Thursday regarding her allegations.
