Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh, a gang rapist?

This 17 September 2018 video from the USA says about itself:

Conservatives dismiss Christine Blasey Ford’s report that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her

When California professor Christine Blasey Ford came forward to say Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were high school students, right-wing [especially Rupert-Murdoch-owned] media immediately lashed out at her.

DRUDGE SHARES SMEAR PIECE ON WRONG PERSON Conservative website Drudge Report shared an article that attempted to smear the credibility of the woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault. But the hit piece targeted the wrong person. [HuffPost]

By Patrick Martin in the USA:

Assault allegation puts question mark over Kavanaugh nomination to Supreme Court

By Patrick Martin

18 September 2018

The Trump administration and congressional Republican leaders were thrown into turmoil Sunday after the woman who charges Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school came forward publicly. Christine Blasey Ford, a clinical psychologist and PhD who has taught at Palo Alto University for two decades, allowed her name to be made public in an interview with the Washington Post arranged by her lawyer, Debra Katz.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley said yesterday that he will call Kavanaugh and Ford to testify Monday, and would delay a confirmation vote originally set for this Thursday.

Ford at first insisted on anonymity when she contacted the Post and her local Democratic representative in July with her account of an assault in 1982. She followed this up with a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination Thursday afternoon. In August, at the urging of her lawyer, who anticipated a ferocious pushback by the Republican Party and the Trump White House, she took and passed a lie detector test about the attack.

Her lawyer told the press that she only changed her mind about demanding anonymity when details of the charges began to circulate in Washington …

Ford has a well-established academic career as a clinical psychologist and biostatistician, with more than 50 published scientific works.

A liberal Democrat who made a small contribution to Bernie Sanders in 2016, Ford signed a letter of protest earlier this year (under her professional name, Blasey), along with 5,000 other experts on child psychology and health, condemning the Trump policy of forcibly separating immigrant parents and children.

Kavanaugh has denied the incident, claiming that he had never acted in the fashion described by Ford. His account was supported by the third person in the room at the time, Mark Judge, now a right-wing author. But according to Ford, Judge played a lesser role in the attack, helping Kavanaugh hold her down. Both youths—then 17 years old—were heavily intoxicated.

Kavanaugh has asserted that he was not present at the party at which the alleged attack is claimed to have occurred. This may prove to be the central issue of fact in determining the credibility of Ford’s allegations and Kavanaugh’s denials.

The [Rupert Murdoch-owned] Wall Street Journal published a vicious editorial questioning Ford’s motives and comparing her to Anita Hill, whose accusations of sexual harassment were largely dismissed in the Senate vote to confirm ultra-right Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991. The comparison, however, cuts across the campaign to push through the nomination of Kavanaugh, since Hill’s accusations are now widely accepted as true.

The timetable at least, and possibly the Kavanaugh nomination itself, are now in question. In informal comments to reporters at the White House, President Trump suggested a short delay in the process might be required. “If it takes a little delay, it’ll take a little delay,” he said. “It shouldn’t certainly be very much.” …

Nevertheless, allegations of so serious a character cannot be suppressed without a public presentation of evidence and testimony under oath. Whether this process leads to a reliable finding of facts is highly problematic. In the end—barring sensational revelations—the outcome will be determined by political calculations. Senate Republicans are concerned that dismissing Ford’s allegations in the fashion of Anita Hill could lead to a debacle in the congressional midterm elections November 6. At the same time, they want to push through the nomination before the election in order to appease ultra-right evangelicals and avoid a complete collapse if the Democrats, against expectation, win control of the Senate.

KAVANAUGH, HIS ACCUSER TO TESTIFY Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who has accused him of sexual assault, will publicly testify on Monday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced. “Anyone who comes forward as Dr. Ford has done deserves to be heard,” Grassley said in a statement, promising to give the allegations a “full airing.” [HuffPost]

FORD’S CLASSMATES OFFER BACKING A group of women who went to Ford’s high school are circulating a letter to show support for the woman who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens. [HuffPost]

TRUMP DISMISSES CLAIMS: KAVANAUGH ‘ONE OF THE FINEST PEOPLE’ President Donald Trump backed his Supreme Court pick despite the allegations, dismissing a reporter’s inquiry about whether Kavanaugh had offered to withdraw his nomination as a “ridiculous question.” He called his Kavanaugh “one of the finest people that I’ve ever known” and said “he is somebody very special”, according to a press pool report. [HuffPost]