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The unindicted co-conspirator in the Oval Office is standing by the Supreme Court nominee he's counting on to keep him there, regardless of whatever Robert Mueller might find. In a press availability early Monday afternoon, Trump praised his nominee as "an outstanding intellect" and "outstanding judge" who is "respected by everybody." He "never even had a little blemish on his record," Trump enthused. Minus that little lying to Congress thing.
A fairly low-key Trump surprisingly didn't attack Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, but instead stuck to the Republican playbook—the Democrats aren't playing fair. "I wish the Democrats could have done this a lot sooner, because they had this information for many months," he said, going on to say he wanted to make sure that this happened at the "absolute highest level"
and everyone's questions are answered, but this one little thing that he just has to say. "One thing I will say is that as I understand it, Judge Kavanaugh spent quite a bit of time with Senator Feinstein and it wasn’t even brought up at that meeting and she had this information. So you would have thought certainly that she would have brought it up at the meeting—not wait til everything’s finished and then have to start a process all over again." But still, he says having apparently been sedated into being remotely human at this event, "we want to go through a full process." On whether the confirmation should be delayed, he says "I'd like to see a complete process. I'd like everybody to be very happy." Yeah, he was definitely sedated before this event. "If it takes a little delay it'll take a little delay." And if he's still on track? "I can tell you the Republican senators want to be a hundred percent happy themselves. They're doing it very very professionally."
Maybe they hypnotized him before the event.
One telling moment, after Trump gave a glowing review of Kavanaugh—"You look at his references – I’ve never seen anything quite like it. […] an individual who is as high a quality individual as you will ever see"—he was asked if he's talked to Kavanaugh since the allegations broke. "I have not spoken to Judge Kavanaugh," he replied. Of course he hasn't. Kavanaugh could have raped a dozen women and that would not have raised to the level where Trump felt it necessary to personally discuss the allegations with the guy he wants to give a lifetime appointment on the nation's Supreme Court.
At any rate, if there's any indication how scared Republicans are that this nomination is being derailed, it's that they got to Trump and got him to behave like an adult. He only had one slip-up, because of course he did. It's Trump. Asked if Kavanaugh has offered to withdraw: "Next question. What a ridiculous question."