Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has dismissed the latest allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh.
The Republican leader joined President Donald Trump in denouncing a weekend New York Times report that accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to a woman when he was an undergraduate at Yale, the Daily Caller reports.
McConnell chimes in
Long despised by the left for his political hardball tactics, McConnell provoked a firestorm last October after rallying his party to successfully confirm the embattled judge. The left’s resentment toward McConnell exploded, and although Kavanaugh went on to the SCOTUS, the left never quite gave up hopes of impeaching him.
For McConnell, the latest allegation appears to be a repeat of the left’s campaign to railroad Kavanaugh’s nomination. “The far left’s willingness to seize on completely uncorroborated and unsubstantiated allegations during last year’s confirmation process was a dark and embarrassing chapter for the Senate,” the majority leader tweeted, according to The Washington Examiner.
Nearly a year later, Kavanaugh was again in the headlines this weekend after Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly published a story in the Times revisiting an allegation from Deborah Ramirez, who accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at a party when they were undergraduates. The article also brought forward a new allegation from Max Stier, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s, who according to the Times said that Kavanaugh’s friends “pushed his [Kavanaugh’s] penis into the hands of a female student.”
Looking back on the darkness of Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, McConnell recalled how “a majority of [s]enators and the American people rallied behind timeless principles such as due process and the presumption of innocence” to support Kavanaugh. Making clear that he would not back impeachment, McConnell said that he looks “forward to many years of service to come from Justice Kavanaugh.”
The Times article notes that the FBI never investigated the new claim. But the article, which was adapted from an upcoming book by the article’s authors, does not mention that the alleged victim and her friends did not recall the incident taking place.
After the omission was pointed out by The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, who read an advance copy of the book, the Times issued a correction that undercut the new allegation.
Dems’ last-ditch effort
Roughly a year ago, Kavanaugh was narrowly confirmed in a 50–48 vote after several weeks of darkness that bitterly divided Americans against each other. Passions ran high as liberals, chafing at McConnell for shooting down Obama SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland, accused Republicans of “ramming through” Kavanaugh’s nomination without due process.
But for Republicans, the shoe was on the other foot: it was Kavanaugh, wrongly accused and tried in the court of public opinion by malicious journalists, who had been denied due process. Last fall, Ramirez’s allegation was not corroborated by The New Yorker, which published it, or the Times, which had reported that Ramirez had told friends she was uncertain if Kavanaugh was the culprit — until she spent days sifting through her memories and consulting with her attorney.
But the media continued to breathlessly print allegations, fueling the impression among Republicans that Kavanaugh was the target of a political smear job like few in modern American history. Now, having failed to block Kavanaugh from the court last year, Democrats have used the new article’s roughly 24-hour shelf life to lobby for Kavanaugh’s impeachment.
“We know he lied under oath. He should be impeached,” former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke said, according to Fox News.
Meanwhile, President Trump, whose unwavering support for Kavanaugh was essential to his confirmation, has backed the judge against the latest allegations, suggesting that he should “start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue” and that the Dems “are trying to influence his opinions.”
“Can’t let that happen!” Trump asserted.
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