Skulking around the UN building and looking for an opportunity to embarrass us on the global stage yet again, Trump commented on the Kavanaugh controversy:
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 24, 2018
A written account of the remarks for those who can’t bear to hear Trump’s snuffling, sneering delivery:
President Donald Trump on Monday affirmed his continuing support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh despite the second allegation of sexual misconduct against him that surfaced Sunday, saying that it’s “unfair,” “unjust” and “totally political.”
“He is a fine man with an unblemished past and these are highly unsubstantiated statements from people represented by lawyers,” Trump said on the sidelines of an event at the United Nations. “We should look into the lawyers doing the representation. Judge Kavanaugh is an outstanding person, and I am with him all the way.”
“There’s a chance that this could be one of the single most unfair, unjust things to happen to a candidate for anything but I am with Judge Kavanaugh and I look forward to a vote,” Trump continued. “For people to come out of the woodwork from 36 years ago and 30 years ago and never mention it, all of a sudden it happens, in my opinion, it’s totally political.”
This is a nightmare scenario for the GOP no matter what they do, IMO. If Kavanaugh withdraws or the nomination otherwise fails, the evangelical hypocrites will pitch an ear-splitting hissy fit. I’ve rarely seen them so dug in on an issue.
If Kavanaugh is seated despite credible allegations of sexual assault, non-brainwashed women will rightly see it as an elite old boy’s club — led by a leering, highly unpopular degenerate who will no doubt continue to say offensive things — closing ranks around one of their own miscreants.
One way or another, they seem very eager to die on this hill.
On the Road and In Your Backyard
Nicole
I think they are desperate to get someone seated who will say a President can’t be indicted. This is all about dismantling the rule of law. Roe v Wade getting overturned is just gravy for them.
Chyron HR
You’re damn right it’s political. One party is loudly and proudly the Rape Party.
Jay C
It IS strange: Even given that no President or Party likes to lose a high-profile nomination like this (lurid allegations notwithstanding), the Admin, GOP, and its various enablers seem obsessed with getting Brett Kavanaugh on the High Court, even though it’s a certainty that the Federalist Society will have some suitable judicial drone/clone to proffer in his place. Maybe it’s Kavanaugh’s well-articulated views on Presidential Immunity??
NotMax
Rhymes with brojection.
Apt description of senior White House staff.
Rudy G., come on down!
Betty Cracker
@Nicole: Bingo.
condorcet runner-up
The bloated chucklehead also ended up steamrolling yet another institution as a throwaway line. People should not be viewed with skepticism just for the act of retaining counsel.
PJ
@condorcet runner-up: Unless their lawyer is Michael Cohen.
jonas
@Nicole:
It’s a moot point if Dems take Congress and have the power to impeach and remove from office. I think Kavanaugh’s more important to the conservative movement for the labor, environmental, and voting laws he’d cheerfully gut if given the opportunity. The prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade is just to keep the Christian rubes in line.
schrodingers_cat
Twitter is swarming with Russian botlets about Special K.
Elizabelle
der Trump:
Merrick Garland, anybody? STFU, DJT.
Yutsano
@Nicole: Give the lovely lady a cigar! Kavanaugh is their guy because of his judicial philosophy towards “inconveniencing” Republican presidents. Not Democratic ones: they can be subpoenaed at will. He’s nothing more than a party hack who happened to get a robe on the DC Circuit of Appeals.
NotMax
Polls before Dr. Ford came forward (weeks before) showed Kavanaugh’s support among women at 28%.
I expect any similar polls today would shatter the magic 27% into smithereens.
LAO
As expected, Manhattan is a shit show this am. I fucking hate UN week.
OzarkHillbilly
I think whether Kavanaugh is seated or not, non-brainwashed women will rightly see it as an elite old boy’s club — led by a leering, highly unpopular degenerate who will no doubt continue to say offensive things — closing ranks around one of their own miscreants, and that we will begin to see more than a few cracks in the facades of the brainwashed.
And I think women will be all to happy to pull the trigger. I for one will be all too happy to let them.
Nicole
@jonas:
He’s certainly be useful for that, too:
prospect.org/article/seaworld-and-kavanaugh%E2%80%99s-missing-empathy-gene
Tim C.
Some questions I have in no particular order.
* Why are the fundamentalists so locked into this particular nominee? I’m sure they could find a Gorsch/Alito clone with no particular offensive personal traits.
* Will the same fundamentalists really throw a fit if they are denied this? I’m not saying they wont for sure, but they had no problem voting for Trump, so I’m not sure any of their stated beliefs matter as much as they like being the in-power group and hurting people.
* While it would be fast, if they just chose one of the other potential nominees (In particular, a woman) They could push it through in a month easy, That’s fast for the Senate, and Democrats will scream, but it would still happen before the election and might make them look reasonable.
zhena gogolia
@condorcet runner-up:
This reminds me of my developer neighbor (RIP) who would show up at every P&Z meeting with his lawyer. Then when we hired an attorney who proved that the developer was breaking the law with his planned three houses right behind our house, when I saw him next he sneered at me, “You hired a lawyer! You’re my neighbor and you hired a lawyer against me!” I guess his lawyer didn’t count because he was his lawyer.
PJ
@jonas: Even if Democrats take the House, there will not be enough Senate Republicans who will turn against Trump to get him convicted, so in no way is it a moot point. The only real possibility of removing Trump before 2020 – and it is a long shot, given the legal battles ahead – is for him to be indicted, which might convince enough Republicans to abandon him. If they do not, and Trump is convicted in a criminal court, then we will have the first Presidency operating from behind bars.
Nicole
Ugh. “He’d.” This is what I get for not proofreading before I hit “post comment.”
NotMax
@LAO
Stick to the west side. Below 34th Street or above 59th.
:)
Jerzy Russian
Even without all of these credible accusations of sexual assaults, this judge should not be a judge if he thinks a calendar kept by an alledged felon that fails to mention the alledged crimes constitutes evidence of innocence. Also too, the fact that he bragged about the “deliberation” that went into his nomination.
OzarkHillbilly
@Chyron HR: Hmmmm….. Republican and Rape both begin with an “R”. Accident?
LAO
@NotMax: Or, I could escape to paradise like some other, unnamed people. Hmm.
joel hanes
@Tim C.:
Why are the fundamentalists so locked into this particular nominee?
Authoritarian followers. Attacks on a member of the tribe increase the intensity of defensive tribal affiliation.
Immanentize
Just a reminder about Clarence Thomas. The Senate was much more divided (although not entirely divided) regarding that confirmation than they are about Kavanaugh. The Democrats could have filibustered Thomas’ nomination, but chose not to:
In this way, Thomas was cleaned up for the Court and his place on it.
Kavanaugh will not be cleaned up in any way, should he win confirmation.
Yutsano
@Jerzy Russian: The flailing is real.
Droppy
I am surprised, but shouldn’t be given that Republicans/conservatives always focus only on the short-term, that they didn’t dump Kavanaugh immediately upon realizing there were going to be sex-related allegations and immediately nominate Amy Coney Barrett from their short list – the only skeletons in her closet would be anti-women, anti-minorities, pro-business opinions and activities. She would sail through and they’d get the same rulings they would have had with K.
Immanentize
@Tim C.: Why did the Evangelicals continue their support fro Roy Moore/
Gin & Tonic
This sounds like an acceptable outcome to me.
James E Powell
I think it’s got something to do with being seen as The Winner! and owning the libtards. A significant part of GOP support comes from the fact that they get what they want. The Village especially but the entire press/media world generally approves of and supports whoever “wins” – they report almost nothing else.
It’s a shame that the only thing that might bring Kavanaugh down is the sexual misconduct. We don’t get to debate the fact that he is a right wing radical whose intent is to use the supreme court to transform the country in ways that are not supported by the majority of Americans, many of whom have no idea what or how about the supreme court’s impact on their lives.
538’s poll averages show an uptick in support for both Trump and the Republicans. Their voters are rallying. They hate us more than they love Trump.
BroD
“people represented by lawyers” are just the worst–amirite?
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: That is such a good story — I may tell my students that one today.
Gin & Tonic
@LAO: OGG-LGA is a *long* commute.
zhena gogolia
I just want to put this here, because the thread below is pretty dead. Someone suggested that Jane Mayer is tagging along with the great man Ronan Farrow, who was the sole reporter to break the Weinstein story. Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson published the definitive investigation of Clarence Thomas in 1994, and the Weinstein story was broken by a group of women reporters at the New York Times.
TS (the original)
@Nicole:
They are just desperate to get someone seated. Polling is not good, they could lose the senate and time is running out.
terraformer
Funny how they always refer to “lawyers” as necessarily bad and worthy of contempt. And yet, a sizable number of politicians are themselves lawyers.
Obviously, just another whistle to the mouth-breathers about someone else who is an “elite” sneering down on them, instead of the thin line representing the rule of law that keeps society civil instead of murdering each other in the streets over arguments.
Betty Cracker
@Tim C.: I think it’s a Cleek’s Law thing for the talibangelicals now — they’re locked in on Kavanaugh to own the libs. That’s not to say they wouldn’t rally around another Fed Society drone like Amy Coney Barrett. I think the evangelicals like her even more for her overt piety. But if Kavanaugh flames out, it’s a loss for them and a victory for the feminazis, and they find the prospect unbearable.
For the Trump people, I think it’s what Nicole said above — they really want Kavanaugh because he’s said Republican presidents shouldn’t be bothered with legal issues.
James E Powell
@zhena gogolia:
Americans are conditioned by the propaganda effect of decades of TV shows and movies in which the police use the phrase “lawyered up” scornfully and consider it an admission of wrong-doing. And they never mention that the government is always “lawyered up.”
schrodingers_cat
The reasons that the R party is doubling down on Special K
1. They are convinced that they can never be wrong.
2. They have drunk their own Kool-Aid
Elizabelle
Do you guys think Kavanaugh will make it to his hearing Thursday?
hells littlest angel
And I am eager to let them.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: And I just replied: It’s really not a competition. If Mayer’s great book about Thomas (It’s on my shelf in my office — I’m looking at it) and Farrow’s reporting on Weinstein mean that different cohorts feel comfortable getting in touch with either or both about the sexual harassment or assault they have experienced, we all win.
Immanentize
Kavanaugh’s view of Presidential immunity seems completely different in the light of the allegations against him. It now seems more like he is trying to save himself from scrutiny by proposing a lessened scrutiny standard than just a position about executive authority.
TaMara (HFG)
Please proceed.
BretH
I would be especially gratified if this also brings to light the sordid goings-on of these prep boys at that school and others in the DC area, and perhaps some measure of closure to the women who were abused there.
TaMara (HFG)
I have emojis? Where did these come from??? (someone got a chrome update I guess, LOL)
jharp
A written account of the remarks for those who can’t bear to hear Trump
That’d be me.
Thank you.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
One way or another, they seem very eager to die on this hill.
This is what mystifies me. Of all the things to go down for, why attempted rape and assault with a deadly willie? Why this fucking guy? There aren’t 700 other drones who wouldn’t rule the same way who didn’t get piss drunk and try to rape people? What’s the deal with these people?
bemused
@zhena gogolia:
Funny, groan, but so true. Everything is always all about them. They are outraged when anyone fights back using the same tactics or remedies they do.
Immanentize
Jane Mayer from TPM:
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Mansplaining, its not just for R party men.
Nicole
@Elizabelle: I really don’t know if he’ll make it to Thursday’s hearing. If he does, I think he gets seated (BAAARRRRFFFFF). If another shoe drops before then, I think he may withdraw.
If the Dems do get control of Congress (I still have not ruled out ratf*cking by Russians and Republicans), they should go after his financials in their investigations. There’s so much wrong there that the media didn’t bother to even touch. But that generally is harder to wave away with, “But I kept a diary!” Yeah, well, so did the banks and the IRS, and theirs are a lot more comprehensive.
Amir Khalid
Has anyone else noticed this? I have lost the right to block autoplay on Firefox, and a few minutes ago I lost it on YouTube as well. The option on FireFox to require my pemission to play any video has been grayed out, and the no-autoplay button on YouTube has disappeared altogether. The fuckers.
Feathers
This is reminding me of a scene from The Age of Innocence. Countess Olenska has returned to New York, having shed her husband. This is not something accepted in New York society and she is snubbed. Her family goes to the powerful van der Luydens to make the argument that if Ellen’s family accepts her, and her reasons for living apart from her horrible husband, than the rest of New York society cannot be permitted to shame her, or the whole notion of the great old families controlling the social scene will crumble. The van der Luydens invite her to an exclusive and important dinner and the Countess is now safely a member of respectable society.
This is what the Republicans are trying to pull off. They have, since 1968, declared themselves the determiners of what is and isn’t moral and what is and isn’t acceptable in American politics. This is why Nixon was pardoned, why the Iran Contra criminals were pardoned, why no one looked too closely at the rationale for the Iraq War, and too many other small moments to list here. They tried to say Obama was beyond the pale, but were not listened to by the people, although the media did treat their arguments as something which needed to be taken seriously.
This is why we have Kavanaugh, because the Republicans knew if they say, no, this guy is too awful, then they are saying that other people (AKA Democrats, and by extension the media) have the right to judge them and find them wanting. If they lose Kavanaugh they lose the moral standing to rule unquestioned.
All of the above applies to Trump as well, of course.
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize:
Just trying to set the record straight.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: I think Jane Mayer just did.
Bruce K
It suddenly occurs to me that we’ve never had a situation where a sitting Supreme Court justice got disbarred. If that were to happen, I bet the GOP would be tying themselves in knots trying to explain how conduct that results in revocation of a license to practice law shouldn’t be sufficient to remove a man from the Supreme Court…
Jeff
Damned if they do. Damned if they don’t. I like it.
montanareddog
@Betty Cracker:
I agree entirely. They are just salivating at the thought of all those apoplectic SJW’s if Kavanaugh gets through. And decades to keep rubbing it in while simultaneously whining about how unfairly he was treated.
as for President Dangle J Toadstool, he cannot abide the thought of losing, period. He must prevail!
gvg
who are “the evangelicals” in the context of politics? I don’t think they are the actual sincerely religious I used to know and see on television. They are overlooking too much that used to be immoral behavior, like hating on the poor and sex. Honestly, it used to be that conservative politicians had to be nearly Ceasar’s wife and so did respectable business leaders.
I know quite a few black coworkers who read the bible in their spare time and do try to spread the word. They do NOT approve of this kind of thing. I still think someone in most of the white churches around here who had these allegations against him would not be appointed to any boards or permitted to minister.
In the last 10 years or so, a bunch of so called religious leaders have started openly (as opposed to secretly) behaving worse than what they used to accuse liberals of. It’s bizarre. I can’t help wondering if they are operating on reputation and not as many follow their orders.
I think it started a while back when the Clinton attack brigade started getting outed as guilty at the time of what they accused Bill of…Gingrinch and some others. Foley being corrupt and DeLay were also pretty shocking. But clearly not shocking enough.
This isn’t religion, it’s tribalism. I know plenty of people who are actually religious though, it’s those who ought to defect.
Betty Cracker
@BretH: I’m around the same age as the folks in the Kavanaugh drama, and I can attest definitively that it didn’t just apply to prep schools. I graduated high school in rural Florida and went to the University of Florida in the mid to late 1980s, and the exact same shit was going on there.
kindness
I would like to think that when Leahy confirmed that Kavanaugh lied to his committee in 2006 during his hearings for current job that would have been enough. God knows it would have been had this been a Democratic nominee. But Republicans have become a tribal people. They are no longer in the democracy club. Now they just want to club everyone and take what they think is theirs (everything that isn’t welded down). Honestly I think Kavanaugh is going down and we are watching the death rattle.
BC in Illinois
“Your proposal is acceptable.”
Immanentize
@Bruce K: First, the Constitution does not require one to be a lawyer to be on the Supreme Court….
From wikip…
Although post–WWII, all appointed justices have had law degrees.
Feathers
@zhena gogolia: With you on the erasure issue. I don’t recall the timeline, but Ronan Farrow did have his story ready to report at NBC, before they shut it down. Would he have been first to the gate if that hadn’t happened.
I think he is getting forefronted on this because he has been doing so many of these stories, about different industries and different abusers. That is because the abusees trust him because of his ferocious advocacy for and protectiveness of his sister. That is why this has become his ‘beat,’ and will continue to do so.
TriassicSands
Kavanaugh can’t be confirmed now, can he? The problem is his replacement will be just as bad (jurisprudentially). I’d expect a woman next (no problem with sex) and, if it is original short-lister Amy Coney Barrett, she’ll be terrible.
They may whine (don’t they always) but they’ll be plenty happy with religious zealot Barrett.
Fair Economist
@Nicole:
Immanentize
@Fair Economist: I’ve said it before, but Chief Justice Roberts must be going crazy kneeling in prayer that Kavanaugh doesn’t make it to the Court.
Mark Damico
“One way or another, they seem very eager to die on this hill.”
Then please proceed.
chris
Shit.
LAO
Holy Shit, if true:
PJ
@OzarkHillbilly: You may be right, but there are plenty of white women who think the whole thing is unfair to Kavanaugh, and they will continue to support Trump and the Republicans: washingtonpost.com/politics/its-hard-to-say-what-is-real-and-what-isnt-women-wrestle-with-accusation…
Immanentize
And, un-ironically at the same moment as the Kavanaugh shit show, Bill Cosby will be sentenced for — drugging and plying with alcohol a woman to have sex with her!
What a spectacular mess we have before us.
father pusbucket
@OzarkHillbilly: Rename it the GROPE.
Nicole
@Fair Economist: I hope you’re right. I really, really do. But even before Dr. Ford’s letter became public, it was clear he was unfit for the USSC, and yet all the Republicans, including those who aren’t running for re-election, and so have no fear of the voters, were just as clear that they were going to vote for him. I don’t think it’s about the wrath of the voters for them; I think it’s about the wrath of the Koch brothers and all the other right-wing gravy trains they’re counting on when they’re out of government. Being a Senator is a stepping-stone job to better-paying work.
(Either that or McConnell has 8X10 glossies of every Republican senator having sex with species other than Homo sapiens. As Ed Whelan has demonstrated, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.)
germy
Butch Groves texted Avenatti, perhaps after too many highballs. Lots of “respectable” white gentlemen deleting their twitter accounts:
NotMax
@LAO
(whistles innocently, avoids direct eye contact).
:)
L85NJGT
McConnell is cynical enough to figure a loss will goose Evangelical turnout. The problem is it’s not 1994 anymore. Demographically they’re sliding off a cliff, which is reflected in Democrats becoming competitive in the Sunbelt.
Immanentize
AND — There goes Rosenstein.
PAM Dirac
@Feathers:
This is why the IOKIYAR never quite rung true for me. It implies there is a process for determining who is OK that others can use/critique. Republicans are OK by definition. That is the reality they claim and privilege they want to remove the claim from any review. I think a useful operational definition of privilege is the situation where you can ignore reality and expect/take for granted/demand that lesser beings fix any inconsistencies/problems that arise. If BK goes down, it can not possibly be his fault, but must be because the liberals and women and other lesser beings didn’t do their job.
grandpajohn
@gvg: Who are these “False Christians”? They are the people described by Jesus in Matthew chap 7
SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal
@OzarkHillbilly:
Happily for us all, the same is true of Randy Rainbow, who has a brilliant and timely new song up.
NotMax
@LAO
Holy what you said, but something is askew. Wouldn’t the resignation properly be submitted to Sessions?
NY Robbin
@LAO:
As an express bus commuterwho works on Madison behind T Tower, you and me both!
Immanentize
@NotMax: I see he is disputing the resignation news, although he does expect to be fired….
SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal
@montanareddog:
???????
???????
Even the initials! Good work!
Elizabelle
FTF NYTimes, that set this in motion.
SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal
@Elizabelle:
CNN says he’s heading for the White House now, even as we type.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
I can’t even imagine why someone would say such a thing and I’m sure Ronan Farrow would agree with that. Jane Mayer gets all the credit she deserves from me. However, Ronan Farrow is also quite the journalist and, by working with him, Mayer obviously thinks so, too.
They are both the epitome of what journalism should be about, IMHO. Jane has the longer resume and excellent track record simply by the fact of her longevity. But young Mr. Farrow is no less excellent for his lack of longevity. I admire the hell out of both of them.
Rand Careaga
@OzarkHillbilly: Rapepublicans.
joel hanes
@gvg:
I think it started a while back when the Clinton attack brigade started getting
It started when Jerry Fallwell and Paul Weyrich founded the “Moral Majority” back in 1979.
Evangelicals sold their souls in exchange for temporal power.
Prior to that, evangelical Christians had not been much of an organized force in American politics.
Miss Bianca
@Feathers: *rest of excellent post snipped*
I do believe you’ve just offered the most cogent and succinctly-stated explanation for this whole “Die on Kavanaugh Hill” phenomenon I’ve seen yet.* And your remarks about “this is who they’ve been since 1968” – I agree. Shit, it’s been *my whole life* as a sentient being that the Republicans have been like this. My God, how I hope they do get machine-gunned on that hill – by dint of voters saying, “enough, no more.” I’m not hopeful, because I’m almost reflexively cynical about my fellow Americans, but I’m not unhopeful, either.
*Well, except for “They’re all fuckers.”
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle:
For what it’s worth, I second that emotion. I now believe that the NYT is actively working to undermine our democracy, and sure, I want to know why – but that can come later. Right now, all I want is for them to be stopped. Somehow. Someway.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: As consumers we can boycott NYT. They get their power because they are considered the newspaper of record. The rest of the media follow where they lead.
No links, no subscription, no views for The Treason Times. Fuck them.
TenguPhule
The terms are acceptable.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
So does Russian, and Russo-Republican !!
Just a hint there…!
J R in WV
You all are acting like the New Your Times just recently became an authoritarian mouth-piece.
But really that started in the very early days of Mr. Hitler’s climb to power in Europe, when they wrote many florid descriptions of all the ways he would be good for the Germans. And Mr Stalin’s effective leadership of the former Tsarist Russia, which was such an improvement over the old-fashioned Imperial government Mr Stalin and his aides displaced.
Seriously, the genocidal farm policy of moving all the food out of Ukraine thereby starving most of the Ukrainians to death was NOT covered by the NYT bureau chief in Moscow, who did Mr Stalin’s bidding in all things back in the 1930s.
The NY Times never met a genocidal despot they didn’t love and admire. Look it up, Google knows where all those articles are.
chopper
@OzarkHillbilly:
can’t spell ‘republican’ without an R, A, P and E.