INTEL REPORT--Two senators considered crucial to the confirmation prospects of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh criticized President Trump on Wednesday for mocking the account of a woman who has accused his Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault decades ago.
“There’s no time and no place for remarks like that,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said on NBC’s “Today” show. “To discuss something this sensitive at a political rally is just not right. It’s just not right. I wish he hadn’t done it. . . . It’s kind of appalling.”
About two hours later, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also took exception to Trump’s remarks, telling reporters, “The president’s comments were just plain wrong.” She did not answer a question about whether the comments could affect how she votes on Kavanaugh.
The assessments of Collins and Flake, the Judiciary Committee member who pushed to delay the vote on Kavanaugh so the FBI could investigate, came the morning after Trump drew laughs for his remarks at a political rally in Mississippi.
[Trump mocks Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford]
In his most direct attack on Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault while both were teenagers in Maryland, Trump sought to highlight holes in the account Ford gave in sworn testimony to the Judiciary Committee last week. (Read the rest.)
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