President Trump repeatedly mocked Christine Blasey Ford on Tuesday, the woman who’s accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. This comes after the president said just days ago that he had found her testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee “very credible.” Trump wowed the crowd in Missouri with a one-man reenactment of Ford’s appearance in the Senate. The president played the inquisitor as he belted down questions and answered them in alternating voices to give the impression that Ford was being interrogated. The crowd cheered on as he continued for a few minutes.
Trump appeared to challenge the veracity of the testimony given by Christine Blasey and expressed confidence that Kavanaugh will indeed be confirmed. The President was speaking during a rally in DeSoto County. It was a stark contrast to the cool and respectful way he and his aides had treated Ford’s testimony over the last few days. However, the performance in Missouri drew sharp criticism from different quarters. Michael Bromwich, the lawyer representing Blasey in the hearing, called it a “vicious, vile, and soulless attack” adding that the president was in fact a “profile in cowardice.”
The Senate chose to delay a confirmation vote on Brett Kavanaugh to give the FBI time to do more background checks on the nominee. Trump told reporters shortly before leaving for the Missouri rally that the FBI had the freedom to look into everything in the interest of the truth. The president also said at the time that regardless of what happens with the FBI investigation, Blasey had given a very credible testimony and looked “like a fine woman.” The sudden change in tone came as a surprise to many but not to Trump supporters. A report published by NBC News noted that most people who spoke to the news agency shortly after the rally in Missouri didn’t care about the allegations. Some said that they don’t believe Kavanaugh was involved in the sexual assault while others made it clear that the nominee should be confirmed regardless.
Trump also took aim at Democratic lawmakers during the event calling them “globalists.” It was almost inevitable he would also bash “fake news media” as he has done in many rallies. The jabs on the media came as a controversial report by the New York Times investigating how Trump acquired his wealth became public. The report claims that Trump used aggressive tax avoidance schemes to get wealthy and not his ingenuity and business acumen as he has always claimed.
The president has been hitting the campaign trail quite frequently over the last few months as he looks to consolidate GOP support in the upcoming midterms. Trump also expressed confidence that he will win re-election in 2020 “easily.” At the moment, there are no official challengers from the Democratic Party. A few names though have been thrown around including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren among others. Many analysts believe that the upcoming midterms will be a grueling battle for Republicans and could be Trump’s biggest test in his two-year-old presidency.
