Trump Says His Own Misconduct Allegations Are Influencing His Opinion On Kavanaugh
President Donald Trump held his first solo press conference in over a year on Wednesday, Sept. 26, and it was quickly clear that a good chunk of the discussion would surround the allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh, which Kavanaugh has denied. At one point during the conference, the president revealed that the sexual misconduct allegations against Trump himself influence his opinion on Kavanaugh. (Trump has denied all the allegations.) Yes, he admitted it.
On July 9, Trump tapped Kavanaugh as his nominee to take the place of Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court bench, after Kennedy announced he was stepping down. The Senate hearings to confirm Kavanaugh began on Tuesday, Sept. 4, and since that time, three women have come forward publicly with accusations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, all of which he has denied in public statements. Representatives for Kavanaugh did not reply to Elite Daily's request for further comment on the multiple allegations. Since the allegations have surfaced, starting with Christine Blasey Ford's on Sept. 14, Trump has defended Kavanaugh and called the claims "totally political," according to The Hill. Elite Daily reached out to the White House at the time of the statement for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication. During the press conference on Wednesday, Sept. 26, Trump admitted that his defense of Kavanaugh is influenced by the fact that he himself has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women, all of which he has repeatedly denied, saying he doesn't know any of the women. Elite Daily reached out to the White House for additional comment on the allegations against Trump but did not hear back. The official White House stance is that all the women are lying. On Sept. 26, Trump said,
It does impact my opinion. You know why? Because I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me. I’m a very famous person, unfortunately. I’ve been a famous person for a long time. But I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me, really false charges. I know friends that have had false charges. People want fame. They want money. They want whatever. So when I see it, I view it differently than somebody sitting home watching television where they say, Oh, Judge Kavanaugh, this or that.
Elite Daily reached out to the White House for additional comment on Trump's statement but did not hear back by the time of publication.
How does he view it differently? Well in his own words, he thinks it's just a "big fat con job" by the Democrats to ruin Kavanaugh's reputation. The president said during Wednesday's press conference,
[Democrats are] actually con artists because they know how quality this man is and they have destroyed a man’s reputation and they want to destroy it even more. And I think people are going to see that in the midterms. What they have done to this family, what they have done to these children, these beautiful children of his, and what they have done to his wife. And they know it’s a big, fat con job.
Trump's rhetoric surrounding the accusations — that the women accusing him are Democratic pawns — is very much in line with Kavanaugh, who said he never committed any sort of sexual misconduct. During a call with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Sept. 25, Kavanaugh called the allegations against him a "smear campaign," and "absurd and outrageous, coordinated perhaps," according to CNN.
As the hearings continue, both the president and his SCOTUS nominee are sticking to the idea that the accusations leveled against Kavanaugh are completely false. At least they know they have someone to commiserate with.
