Trump's attacks on Kavanaugh's second accuser show why the GOP hired a woman to question Ford
By James Hohmann
September 26 at 9:21 AM
THE BIG IDEA: Senate Republicans have hired a female prosecutor from Arizona to question Christine Blasey Ford on Thursday about her allegation that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her whey they were teenagers.
The goal is to spare themselves the level of public outcry that followed Anita Hill’s cross-examination 27 years ago by a group of all-male senators and thus avoid a redux of the Year of the Woman that followed in 1992.
It’s no coincidence that Republicans announced the selection of Rachel Mitchell at the end of another day in which President Trump forcefully criticized the women who have accused his Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct.
After speaking at the United Nations, Trump harshly dismissed the account of Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale who told the New Yorker that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during an undergraduate party. The president said Ramirez was “totally inebriated and all messed up.”
“The second accuser has nothing,” Trump told reporters. “The second accuser thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not. She admits she was drunk. She admits time lapses.” Then he used sarcasm: “Oh, gee, let’s not make him a Supreme Court judge because of that.”
The president’s comments highlighted why polls show a widening gender gap as the midterm elections approach and also added fresh urgency to congressional GOP efforts to appear as sensitive and humane as possible, even while they push to confirm Kavanaugh as soon as possible.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/09/26/daily-202-trump-s-attacks-on-kavanaugh-s-second-accuser-show-why-the-gop-hired-a-woman-to-question-ford/5baaae991b326b7c8a8d168c/
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