Republican senators lambasted Democrats’ tactics in the fight over Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court Wednesday, expressing skepticism about a third allegation of sexual assault against Kavanaugh.
With thinly veiled frustration, Senators Orrin Hatch and Lindsey Graham chastised Kavanaugh critics for bringing the accusations up so late in the confirmation process.
“It’s amazing to me that these kinds of things have come up way after the fact, way after the end of the committee hearings,” Hatch said. “It shows there are people who would stop at nothing.”
“I don’t think it’s fair to Brett Kavanaugh, I don’t think it’s fair to our system, I don’t think it’s fair to the process,” the Utah Republican added. “I don’t think we should put up with it, to be honest with you.”
Attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents adult-film star Stormy Daniels, on Wednesday released a sworn affidavit from another client, Julie Swetnick. In the affidavit, Swetnick claims that she knew Kavanaugh when they were in high school and that he would regularly attend alcohol-fueled parties and become sexually aggressive with girls. She alleged that Kavanaugh and his male friends would look for opportunities to drug girls and gang rape them at parties. She herself was raped at such a party, she said, and claimed that Kavanaugh was “present” when the attack occurred.
Two other women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct against them. Christine Blasey Ford will testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday about her claim that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and tried to remove her clothing at a party when they were both in high school. Deborah Ramirez has alleged that the judge exposed himself to her at a party during their freshman year at Yale University.
Hatch called Ford, who will testify on Thursday, “mixed up,” and dismissed Ramirez’s claim as “phony.”
“Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it just did,” Graham said in a statement. “The lawyer to porn stars has just taken this debacle to an even lower level. I hope people will be highly suspicious of this allegation presented by Michael Avenatti.”
“I have a difficult time believing any person would continue to go to — according to the affidavit — ten parties over a two-year period where women were routinely gang raped and not report it,” the senator from South Carolina continued. “I also find it curious these charges were not brought forward until 2018, two days before a confirmation vote.”
Senator Jeff Flake, a frequent critic of President Trump, took a position between that of his own party and Democrats.
“I don’t believe that Dr. Ford is part of some kind of vast conspiracy from start to finish to smear Judge Kavanaugh, as has been alleged by some on the right,” Flake said. But he added that he also doesn’t believe “Judge Kavanaugh is some kind of serial sexual predator, as has been alleged by some on the left.”
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana questioned the latest allegation against Kavanaugh in stronger terms.
“We’re being told that a woman went to ten different parties where women were being gang raped, and never reported it until, again, two days before this hearing,” Cassidy said. “That just doesn’t seem right to me. Why would she continue to go to parties where this would occur?”
Democrats doubled down on their calls for Kavanaugh to withdraw his name from consideration for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat in the wake of Swetnick’s claims.
“I strongly believe Judge Kavanaugh should withdraw from consideration,” Senator Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “If he will not, at the very least, the hearing and vote should be postponed while the FBI investigates all of these allegations.”
“If our Republican colleagues proceed without an investigation, it would be a travesty for the honor of the Supreme Court and our country,” the Senate minority leader added.
“Democrats had nothing to do with these women coming forward. They came forward on their own,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, who sits on the Judiciary Committee.
The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler, went so far as to compare the allegations against Kavanaugh to the dozens of sexual-assault accusations against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
“The specific reason they have credibility is that they fit the pattern, and the pattern is that when you find someone like a Harvey Weinstein or someone else who’s very respected and powerful . . . and is suddenly accused of sexually exploiting women, first one person comes forward, and then another, and then the dam breaks, and you find a number of women coming forward,” Nadler said.