Trump’s taking over the Kavanaugh defense. OMG.
by digby
This is going to be nuts:
Trump has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the way Brett Kavanaugh has defended himself in wake of sexual assault allegations that have threatened to derail his Supreme Court nomination, multiple sources tell CNN.
It has led the President to believe that he must personally take charge of defending his embattled nominee ahead of Thursday’s critical appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Trump made the decision to hold a news conference on the eve of the hearing, making it the fourth he has held as president.
Julie Swetnick, who attended a different high school in Maryland and is being represented by the lawyer Michael Avenatti, said she attended “well over 10” parties where Kavanaugh was present and saw him “drink excessively at many of these parties and engage in abusive and physically aggressive behavior towards girls.”
Kavanaugh denied the allegations in his most aggressive statement yet, writing: “This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”
But the President’s pushback was even stronger, declaring that Avenatti “is a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations, like he did on me and like he is now doing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He is just looking for attention and doesn’t want people to look at his past record and relationships – a total low-life!”
Update: Here’s what he said yesterday. I can only imagine how bad it’s going to be at his press conference today.
TRUMP: I think he is just a wonderful human being. I think it is horrible what the Democrats have done. It is a con game, they are really con artists. They are trying to convince — they don’t be — they don’t believe it themselves. They know he is a high-quality person, they don’t believe it. It just resist and obstruct. They are playing a con game, and they are playing it very well — much better than Republicans.
They are lousy politicians, they have lousy policy, they don’t know what the hell they are doing. They want to get rid of ICE, they want to get rid of law enforcement, they don’t want to take care of our military, they want to raise your taxes, but they are good at one thing: That is obstruction and con. He is one of the highest quality people. He said when he was focused on being No. 1 in his class at Yale, to me, that was so believable. I understand college very well, being No. 1 in your class. I understand a lot of things.
When he said that, I understood exactly. He was so truthful. But for the Democrats to be trying to make him into something — let’s be nice about it: Something he is not. . . . This isn’t his footing, he’s never been here before. He’s never had any charges like this. Charges come up from 36 years ago that are totally unsubstantiated.
I mean, you, as a president of a great country, Colombia, I mean how is this possible — 36 years ago? . . . And now a new charge comes up, and she says it may not be him and there are gaps. And she was totally inebriated and all messed up, and she doesn’t know. ‘It might have been him, or it might not have been him.’ ‘Gee, let’s not make him a Supreme Court judge.’
This is a con game being played by the Democrats. . . . These are the same lawyers who have been fighting for years. . . . It is a shame you can do this to a person’s life. I’ll tell you: Maybe even more important: Who is going to want to go before the system to be a Supreme Court judge or even a politician? I can tell you that false accusations of all type are made against a lot of people. This is a high-quality person, and it would be a horrible insult to our country if this doesn’t happen. And it’ll be a horrible, horrible thing for future political people. It cannot be allowed to happen. And the Democrats are playing a con game. C-O-N.
Q: Should the second accuser be allowed to testify?
TRUMP: The second accuser doesn’t even know — she thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not. Admits she was drunk. She admits time lapses. This is a person, and this is a series of statements that is going to take one of the most talented intellects from a judicial standpoint in our country — keep him off the U.S. Supreme Court? He has the chance to be one of the greatest justices in the United States Supreme Court. What a shame . . . His wife is devastated, his children are devastated. I don’t mean, ‘Oh gee, I am a little unhappy.’ They are devastated. And it is because of these Democrats.
He’s obviously very interested in the details of these accusations.
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