The melodrama concerning Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman he allegedly assaulted, just seems to keep gaining momentum. Especially when Trump himself can't help but intervene with idiotic and damaging comments on Twitter. And on that score, Friday morning's regularly scheduled tweetstorm didn't disappoint.
For much of the past couple of weeks, Trump has been relatively restrained with regard to Dr. Ford. The White House was even bragging about how sensitive he's been by not attacking her, which is what would be expected from this petulant brat of a president. But that all ended Friday when Trump's will power (or babysitters) failed him:
First of all, it's ludicrous for Trump to say that facts don't matter to the Democrats, when they are the ones that want the FBI to investigate and produce a factual account of what happened. It's Trump and the GOP who are opposed to that fact-finding effort.
But more to the point, Trump's attack on Dr. Ford is as brazen as it is senseless. He knows (or should know) the details of Dr. Ford's account and why she didn't report the incident at the time. That's all public. So Trump is deliberately pushing to inject a false narrative into the affair.
And that seems to be all the rage these days. Ed Whelan of the National Review pushed his own conspiracy theory yesterday about another possible suspect in the sexual assault. The only problem was that he had no evidence or even a plausible argument. It was so bad that Whelan posted an apology for his "appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment" on Twitter last night. However, that didn't stop Fox News from promoting the libelous accusation:
Interestingly, Fox News host Ed Henry asked in that segment "Is it a case of mistaken identity?" He and his co-hosts were giving credence to the allegations that the author had already disowned. Although Fox News has still not issued any retractions or apologies for regurgitating the charges. And what makes Henry's validation of Whelan's lies interesting is that he later appeared on another Fox program to criticize Trump for tweeting about Dr. Ford (video below):
"If you had asked me an hour ago, I would have said that I think Judge Kavanaugh is in a strong position. But In the last hour the President is tweeting, questioning Dr. Ford’s account. Why didn’t she go to the police? The White House has been making such a big deal about how the President stayed off Twitter. He's not attacking the woman here. He's just praising Judge Kavanaugh.
"And I think it seems to me - I don’t want to overreact - but it seems to be a big mistake to take a situation that has been calming down. There's been negotiations over testimony and I think the Republicans have had the upper hand this week, because it started with this shocker on Sunday in the Washington Post. That he’s sailing to confirmation. Maybe not. There’s a problem here. She needs to be heard, and the Republicans said let’s hear from her. I think the president intervening might blow this up."
Let's set aside the absurd analysis that the Republicans had the upper hand. If that were true they would not have canceled the confirmation vote for Kavanaugh that was originally scheduled for yesterday. But Henry's concern that Trump's tweets might "blow this up" are proof that even Fox News is worried that Kavanaugh's confirmation may be in jeopardy. And even worse, that it's the fault of Trump's uncontrolled psyche and ego.
If this nomination is blown up due to an unhinged outburst by Trump, it would not be the first time that his recklessness and over active pie hole has created chaos and hurt the prospects of his own agenda. In fact, that is rapidly becoming the hallmark of the Trump presidency. Everything he touches turn to - let's say shiitake mushrooms (unless that's too close a reference to his genitals). Trump is truly his own worst enemy. Even worse than the "enemy of the people," the media. And this time it's his favorite media, Fox News, that is sending up the flares.