Washington: Donald Trump ditched his earlier restraint Friday in the scandal threatening his Supreme Court nominee, declaring that the woman who accuses the would-be justice of sexual assault when they were teens should not be believed.
A showdown in the mounting political battle over the nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, and his accuser, California-based professor Christine Blasey Ford, appeared set for next week.
The leader of the Republican-dominated Senate Judiciary Committee announced that a confirmation vote will be held Monday, unless Ford agrees by Friday 10:00 pm (0200 GMT Saturday)to testify within the next few days.
She has so far refused, accusing Trump loyalists of intending to deny her a fair hearing and to give the conservative Kavanaugh the green light regardless.
“I’m providing a notice of a vote to occur Monday in the event that Dr Ford’s attorneys don’t respond or Dr Ford decides not to testify,” committee chairman Chuck Grassley said in a statement.
Grassley’s ultimatum chimed with Trump’s abrupt change of tone earlier.
Previously, the president had led Republicans in insisting that Ford must be given a respectful, fair hearing, even if he fully vouched for Kavanaugh’s character.
But the gloves came off Friday, reflecting Trump’s fear that time is running out to get the judge confirmed — thereby tilting the Supreme Court firmly to the right for years to come — before November elections when Republicans risk losing control of Congress.
“TAKE THE VOTE!” Trump tweeted, blaming “radical left wing politicians” for the controversy.
Trump rejected the credibility of Ford’s claim to have been sexually assaulted by a drunken Kavanaugh when they attended neighboring private schools near Washington in the early 1980s.
According to Trump, the fact that Ford remained silent until now shows the incident probably never happened — even if this runs counter to what experts say is the typical reaction of sexual assault victims afraid or embarrassed to report.
“I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr Ford was as bad as she says,” Trump wrote, “charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents.”
“Why didn’t someone call the FBI 36 years ago?”
The senior Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, called Trump’s logic “a highly offensive misunderstanding of surviving trauma.”
More concerning for Trump might have been the angry reaction of one of his own Republican senators, Susan Collins, who sits on the Judiciary Committee.
“I was appalled by the president’s tweet,” she told US media.
“We know that allegations of sexual assault are some of the most under-reported crimes that exist. So I thought that the president’s tweet was completely inappropriate and wrong.”
Trump’s outburst saw a new #MeToo era hashtag storm the internet, with #WhyIDidntReport the top trending conversation starter on US Twitter, as people — mostly women — vented outrage over past transgressions and voiced solidarity with Ford.
– High stakes –
Republicans are furious over what they say was the deliberate timing of the last-minute revelation of Ford’s allegation, accusing Democrats of seeking to prevent the process from finishing before the November midterm elections.
Democrats hope to recapture at least one chamber of Congress in the vote.
For their part, Democrats say Republicans are mounting an unseemly rush to get Kavanaugh into the nine-member Supreme Court while they still control the legislature.
Kavanaugh has repeatedly agreed to testify before the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee, saying he wants to clear his name.
A distinguished judge seen as favoring conservative interpretations of the constitution, he has not been accused in other sexually related cases and no further witness has come forward to corroborate Ford’s claims.
But Ford’s lawyers and supporters in Congress say that a quick Senate hearing is not enough, insisting that the FBI open an inquiry seeking witnesses.
Debate over the timing and organization of any hearing in the Senate has dragged on for days.
But top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell told supporters he has no doubt about the outcome.
“Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court,” he said to applause. “We’re going to plow right through it.”
– Damage done –
Meanwhile, both the protagonists in the drama have already suffered.
Kavanaugh has seen his near coronation in the lifetime judicial appointment transformed into a fight for his basic reputation.
Ford, who until now was unknown to the wider public, finds herself a lightning rod in everything from Washington power politics to the #MeToo movement of women breaking silence on decades of workplace harassment by powerful men.
Her lawyers say the professor’s life has been turned upside down, having received death threats and been forced out of her home.
[source_without_link]Agence France-Presse[/source_without_link]