NOMINATION/RALLY/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “As the fate of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, his Supreme Court nominee, teetered over a sexual assault allegation from decades ago, President Trump vented his frustration about his own party’s unwillingness to aggressively hit back. Speaking to thousands of supporters at a rally in Missouri on Friday [9-23-18], Mr. Trump recounted how he had implored an unnamed senator to ‘fight for’ Judge Kavanaugh, and “not worry about the other side.” The lawmaker pushed back, the president said, citing his experience from 25 years in politics. But Mr. Trump said he had told the man that he knew better: ‘I’ve been in politics for two and a half years, and I’m the president of the United States.’ The exchange highlighted the clash between Mr. Trump’s pugnacious instincts and the political realities surrounding Judge Kavanaugh’s imperiled nomination. Mr. Trump is confronting a situation that is beyond his control, with the Senate Judiciary Committee making the decisions, including a momentous one on Sunday in which it reached an agreement to hear public testimony from the judge’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. With one notable exception late last week, Mr. Trump has heeded instructions from his advisers and Republican senators to hold his fire, lest he provoke a calamitous backlash.”
–Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Constrained From Fighting, Trump Is Left a Spectator With Kavanaugh in Peril,” The New York Times online, September 24, 2018