Washington – President Donald Trump challenged the woman accusing his Supreme Court nominee of assault by name Friday, saying that if the alleged attack was that “bad” then she would have filed charges.
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Abandoning his previous restraint, Trump tweeted: “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!”
The president previously had avoided naming Christine Blasey Ford or casting doubt on her account. Ford alleges Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than 30 years ago when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
Trump’s apparent shift in strategy comes as Ford’s lawyers are negotiating with the Senate Judiciary Committee on the terms of her possible testimony next week, raising the prospect of a dramatic Senate showdown over Ford’s accusation.
In another tweet, Trump, who is in Las Vegas for various events, wrote: “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.”
On Thursday, Ford lawyers told the Judiciary Committee that her preference is to testify next Thursday. She doesn’t want Kavanaugh in the same room, her attorney told the panel’s staff in a 30-minute call that also touched on security concerns and others issues, according to a Senate aide. That aide wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ford is willing to tell her story — but only if agreement can be reached on “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” the attorney said. She said Ford needs time to make sure her family is secure, prepare her testimony and travel to Washington. No decisions were reached, the aide said.
In addition to security, expected to be provided by Capitol Police, Ford has asked for press coverage of her testimony to be the same as for Kavanaugh. Reporters had assigned seating and were kept separated from the nominee, who was whisked to and from the room.
Ford’s attorney said Ford would like to testify first, but that might be complicated because Kavanaugh has already agreed to Monday’s scheduled hearing.
The accusation has jarred the 53-year-old conservative jurist’s prospects for winning confirmation, which until Ford’s emergence last week had seemed all but certain. It has also bloomed into a broader clash over whether women alleging abuse are taken seriously by men and how both political parties address such claims with the advent of the #MeToo movement — a theme that could echo in this November’s elections for control of Congress.
The discussions have revived the possibility that the panel will hold an electrifying campaign-season hearing at which both Ford and Kavanaugh can give their versions of what did or didn’t happen at a party in the 1980s. Kavanaugh, now a judge on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has repeatedly denied Ford’s allegation.
This is becoming crazier by the minute. Who is this Ford woman to dictate to the Senate Judiciary Committee when they will hold a hearing, how the hearing will proceed and who will be in the room? She has been invited to attend a hearing on Monday. If she wants to come fine, if not, also fine. What a chutzpah she has to think the Senate Judiciary Committee should negotiate terms with her.
Charges should have been filed against Trump for him groping a woman on an airplane in 1980, who was seated next to him; the woman stated that he repeatedly groped her chest and private area. When Trump was confronted about that incident two years ago, he stated “she was not my type”. In other words, according to his warped thinking, because she is not attractive today, she would not have been that attractive to him in 1980, for him to have grabbed her. Also, Trump is alleged to have grabbed a female in her private area, in a bar in NYC, in the 1970’s. Several contestants on the Apprentice also stated that he engaged in unwanted sexual advances towards them, as did a reporter. Trump bragged about his sexual behavior in the 2005 tape, when he stated “grab them by the (expletive deleted)”.
the “fourth” person who supposedly was in the room – mentioned by her – says NOTHING EVER HAPPENED – it’s all a LIE.
I have never heard such demands before one testifies. Nor in all my life have I heard a demand for the defendant testify first. One needs to connect the dots to see who her attorney is, who she has represented in the past and who is funding all this.
Why hasn’t the judge sued her if he is telling the truth and she made up a story that never happened?
Fake News Alert:
This article’s headline make sit appear as if Trump shamed her or did what even I’ll admit some slut shaming or other non appripo attack. its not true. its a lie and fake news. All he did was attack her credibility not her person at all. Just want to be clear. And that’s a fair argument even if you disagree.
re the actual story and osme of the above comments. All I’ll say is maybe its true maybe its untrue. Maybe she really wanted to be in that room and changed her mind in middle. There is so much area in the middle of the he said / she said argument. But espically back then, as teenagers at an alchohl party and in college if it did occur its such a gray area and so normal for immature underage HS boys while drunk.
Assuming there are
1) no multiple accusations since then
2) and its not of the present
(Those are two district differences between this case and Thomas.)
Assuming that’s true this is a silly stunt by Feinstein to grab attention.
Trump did attack her. He said ” why didnt she report it?” It looks like Trump forgot that he can do whatever he wants to any woman and nothing they can do about it. He said this publicly. Than he apologized for it. It doesnt change the facts that abused women rarely goes to report it. Just like the kids in Yeshivos for many many years never reported abuse. Its Different times today so she is coming forward.
This is nothing new; Trump publicly defended other sexual perverts, namely, Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, Judge Roy Moore, and an assistant in the White House (Porter), who beat his two ex-wives. One of them presented photographic evidence of the beating. Trump referred to all of those perverts, as “good people”. Incidentally, that pervert Bill O’Reilly paid Liz Weihl, out of his own pocket $32,000,000 (Thirty Two Million), as he had been sexually abusing her for years.
30 Years ago!!!!????? In high school!!??
Is this serious??!!
Thy must be completely NUTS!
Why don’t they find out about all the bad things he did in kindergarten?