President Trump on Monday ripped Democrats for talk of impeaching Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh over allegations he committed perjury during his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I’ve been hearing that they’re now thinking of impeaching a brilliant jurist — a man that did nothing wrong, a man that was caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn before departing for a police convention in Orlando. “And now they want to impeach him. I’ve heard this from many people. I think it’s an insult to the American public.”
In an interview with Yahoo News on Sunday, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left open the possibility of impeaching Kavanaugh if Democrats take back one of the houses of Congress in next month’s midterm elections.
“The reality is, right now, Republicans control the House and the Senate, and there’s no way to do even an investigation unless we flip one of the houses. So I think even before you start focusing on questions about his truthfulness before a Senate committee, you’ve got to focus on the urgency of the work over the next 30 days, and that’s where my focus is,” Booker said. “I think that after the dust settles on the night of [Nov.] 6th, I think that’s where we start to evaluate.”
The confirmation of Kavanaugh despite multiple sexual assault allegations enraged activists. Protesters, most of them women, flooded the U.S. Capitol on Saturday ahead of the Senate’s confirmation vote. Democratic lawmakers, like Booker, are hoping to channel that anger into votes.
Trump, though, predicted a different outcome.
“I think you’re going to see a lot of things happen on Nov. 6 that would not have happened before,” he said. “The American public has seen this charade, has seen this dishonesty by the Democrats.”
Trump said the mere mention of impeaching a Supreme Court justice who “is a top scholar, a top student, a top intellect, and who did nothing wrong” should galvanize support for Republican candidates on the ballot.
“I think a lot of Democrats are going to vote Republican,” the president said, adding: “I have many friends that are Democrats. The main base of the Democrats has shifted so far left that we’ll end up being Venezuela. This country would end up being Venezuela.”
“I thought the way they behaved was absolutely atrocious,” Trump fumed. “I thought the way they conducted themselves, the way they dealt with a high-level, brilliant, going to be a great justice of the Supreme Court — the way they really tortured him and his family — I thought it was a disgrace. I thought — I thought it was one of the most disgraceful performances I’ve ever seen.”
Last week, Trump angered both Democrats and Republicans by mocking Christine Blasey Ford, who in testimony accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers. Previously, Trump had said he found Ford’s testimony “very compelling.”
On Monday morning, he issued a blanket dismissal of the allegations against Kavanaugh brought by Ford and two other women.
“It was all made up,” Trump said. “It was fabricated. And it is a disgrace.”
Addressing the convention of International Association of Chiefs of Police in Orlando Monday afternoon, Trump again painted Kavanaugh as a victim.
“It was very, very unfair what happened to him,” the president said. “It was a disgraceful situation brought about by people that are evil. And he toughed it out. We all toughed it out together.”