9/26/2018

DEMS/GOP/NOMINATION/SEX ABUSE/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WOMEN: “Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh faced a whirlwind of new accusations on Wednesday [9-26-18] that threatened to derail his nomination to the Supreme Court as key Republican senators wavered in their support and President Trump, in a rambling and combative news conference, acknowledged that he might be persuaded by the testimony of one of the judge’s female accusers. On the eve of an extraordinary hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee at which both Judge Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor who has accused him of assaulting her when they were both teenagers, will testify, Mr. Trump said that ‘some very evil’ Democrats had plotted to destroy Judge Kavanaugh’s reputation. And he lamented what he called ‘a very dangerous period in our country’ in which men are presumed guilty. But even as he described the charges against Judge Kavanaugh as ‘false accusations,’ Mr. Trump seemed, for the first time, to acknowledge the mounting challenges facing his nominee. Asked why he repeatedly sides with men over their female accusers, the president said hearing stories from Dr. Blasey might change his mind.”

Nicholas Fandos and Michael D. Shear, “New Evidence, New Accuser and New Doubts Threaten Kavanaugh on Eve of Hearing,” The New York Times online, September 26, 2018