Even before the first accuser of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sat down to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Donald Trump was already feeling kind of ragey and preparing for a Yosemite Sam round of finger pointing if Kavanaugh tanked.
“He has begun laying the groundwork to blame Senate Republican leaders should the nomination fail,” the Washington Post reported Wednesday night, adding Trump has complained that Republicans have been “played like a bunch of fools.”
Welp, that didn’t get any better as Trump and the rest of America watched the unbelievably poised, precise, authentic, learned, and unassuming Dr. Christine Blasey Ford school Republicans on both the biology and emotional trauma associated with being the victim of sexual assault.
“Panic is setting in” at the White House, Post reporter Ashley Parker told MSNBC just after Dr. Blasey Ford completed her testimony. That assessment matches perfectly with the Twitter feed of Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman. Here’s a few choice tweets from Sherman:
- One Trump ally just joked Mitchell must be working for the Democrats she’s been that bad.
- Person close to Trump says Trump is raging at how bad this has been for Republicans so far. Trump told people Ford “seems credible,” per source.
- Trump telling people he’s furious that WH aides didn’t have advance knowledge of how credible Ford would seem, per second source
- This is Trump’s worst nightmare: a TV moment going badly for him that’s completely out of his control
- Trump also furious with Don McGahn for putting him in this situation, source said.
Sounds like Republicans would have done well to take Dr. Blasey Ford both literally and seriously when she said she suffered an attack at the hands of a drunken Brett Kavanaugh in high school. Instead they thought they could simply brush past her claim with a pro forma hearing they would ultimately ignore on the way to confirming Kavanaugh to the high court.
If you’re still not sure whether Republicans already feel like they’ve lost this round, check out Sen. Lindsey Graham’s post-hearing diatribe about Democrats’ master plan to use Ford’s testimony in order to take back the Senate in the midterms.
“The friends on the other side set it up to be just the way it is,” he charged. “I feel ambushed as the majority.”
The poor Senate majority… victimized again.