Ting Shen/ZUMA
President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to suggest that Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh are not credible because she did not file charges when the alleged attack occurred more than 30 years ago, when she and Kavanaugh were teenagers.
The assertion marked the first time the president has publicly challenged Ford’s detailed account of sexual assault. Until Friday, Trump had displayed an uncharacteristically measured response to the allegations, defending Kavanaugh’s record and supporting a public testimony from Ford instead of attacking her credibility.
I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
The radical left lawyers want the FBI to get involved NOW. Why didn’t someone call the FBI 36 years ago?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
Trump on Friday also accused “radical left wing politicians” of weaponizing the accusations against Kavanaugh to derail his nomination process. In doing so, Trump pointed to his own personal experiences with Democrats and what he claims is the party’s destruction of “facts” to express sympathy for Kavanaugh.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don’t want to know the answers, they just want to destroy and delay. Facts don’t matter. I go through this with them every single day in D.C.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
Trump’s parallel made no mention of the string of sexual assault allegations—many of which include the very details of “date, time, and place” he claims are lacking in Ford’s story—that have been made against him. Both men have categorically denied their respective accusers’ allegations.
