DEMS/NOMINATIONS/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “President Trump falsely charged on Tuesday [9-18-18] that Democrats had sought to time a sexual assault allegation against his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, to obstruct his confirmation, siding with the judge as he called for a swift process for airing the accusation on Capitol Hill…Judge Kavanaugh has flatly denied the charge. The president attacked Democrats for not having raised the accusation earlier in the confirmation process, when they first learned of it over the summer, arguing that they had deliberately withheld the information to harm him…In casting doubt on the timing of Dr. Blasey’s accusation, Mr. Trump, himself the subject of sexual misconduct allegations that he has denied, mischaracterized Democrats’ role. They took their cue from Dr. Blasey, who was not willing to go public with her accusation until this past weekend. She contacted a reporter this year about the episode and detailed it in July in a confidential letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination. Dr. Blasey had initially asked to remain anonymous, until she came forward this weekend in an interview published in The Washington Post.”
–Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Trump Sides With Kavanaugh, Accusing Democrats of Timing Sex Assault Charge to Delay Confirmation,” The New York Times online, September 18, 2018