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Show's over, folks. Donald Trump—once showing an incomprehensible amount of moderation over the sexual assault allegations dogging his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh—has blown his stack.
"Let her testify, or not, and TAKE THE VOTE!" Trump stormed in a Friday morning tweet about Kavanaugh’s accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
In an earlier tweet, Trump said he had "no doubt" that charges would have been filed with law enforcement officials if the assault in 1982 was "as bad" as Dr. Blasey Ford has said it was.
“I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!” Trump said.
In other words, if she can't produce a police filing, she's a liar. This kind of victim blaming is exactly why women so often don't step forward—because jerks like Trump are plenty happy to smear their good names, ruin their lives, and re-traumatize them. Repulsive. And it's 2018. Imagine how much worse it would have been in the ‘80s, when the episode took place.
Anyway, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell went ahead and confirmed exactly what a staffer for Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley tweeted Thursday before deleting the assertion: Republicans plan to confirm Kavanaugh come hell or high water.
“Here’s what I want to tell you," McConnell pledged Friday at the Values Voter Summit, "In the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court."
In other words, once we get this whole sham of a show over that we supposedly want to fairly review the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, we will absolutely confirm him. Stick with us, folks, we're just playing this game until we can schedule the vote and put Kavanaugh on the court.
My colleague, Joan McCarter, has it right—it’s all a gambit to intimidate Dr. Blasey Ford out of testifying when Republicans are supposed to be making a good-faith effort to negotiate with her lawyers over the terms of her testimony. But it’s all just sickly blatant misogynistic victim blaming, shaming, and dismissing.
The Republicans—apparently emboldened by the fact that they denied even giving President Obama nominee Merrick Garland a hearing and still kept the majority—figure they have no obligation to put someone on the court who has more than 30-some percent support of the electorate (Kavanaugh literally has more opposition to his confirmation than support for it in three separate polls this week). Republicans see their obligation is only to please that 30 percent, not to maintain the integrity of the Supreme Court in the eyes of the other 70 percent of the nation.