MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell falsely claimed on Twitter Friday that Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had called Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh “garbage” during yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Lindsay Graham just called Dr Ford’s story “garbage.”
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) September 28, 2018
“[Kavanaugh] has been at the highest level of public service, under tremendous scrutiny, six FBI investigations, and we missed the sophomore, junior gang rapist? We didn’t miss it, it’s a bunch of garbage,” Graham said, referencing the recent allegation publicized by Michael Avenatti on behalf of his client, Julie Swetnick.
Swetnick claims that she attended a number of high-school parties in the Washington, D.C. area where Kavanaugh sexually assaulted women and participated in “gang rapes,” though she admits to never having directly witnessed his participation.
O’Donnell, who recently delivered a speech on Martha’s Vineyard lamenting the degradation of truthfulness in public discourse, claimed falsely that Graham’s comments were made in reference to Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh drunkenly pinned her to a bed and groped her when they were in high school.
Graham went on to address Ford’s claims, saying only that he “feels sorry for her.”
“Ms. Ford, all I can say about Ms. Ford, I feel sorry for her,” Graham said. “I do believe something happened to her, and I don’t know when and where, but I don’t believe it was Brett Kavanaugh. And as a prosecutor, you couldn’t get out of the batter’s box because in America before you can accuse someone of a crime, you have to tell them when it happened and where it happened and prove beyond a reasonable doubt it did happen.”