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babylonsister

(171,056 posts) Wed Sep 26, 2018, 09:56 PM Sep 2018

Donald Trump's Mind-Boggling Marathon Press Conference

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/donald-trumps-press-conference-was-complete-disaster/571438/

Donald Trump's Mind-Boggling Marathon Press Conference
At one point, the president claimed that the sexual-misconduct allegations against him have shaped his view of Brett Kavanaugh, his Supreme Court nominee.
David A. Graham
6:22 PM ET

At a rambling, often self-contradictory press conference Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump baselessly claimed a vast conspiracy to concoct sexual-misconduct charges against him and offered a surprisingly weak defense of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee who has been accused by three women of sexual misconduct.

“I’ve had numerous accusations about me … They made false statements about me knowing they were false,” Trump said. When a reporter asked why the president always seemed to give the benefit of the doubt to men accused of sexual misconduct, he acknowledged that the allegations against him colored his response to the claims made against Kavanaugh. “It does impact my opinion … because I’ve had a lot of false charges made at me.”

The 19 women who have accused President Trump of sexual assault

More broadly, Trump offered a broad critique of the #MeToo movement and the growing calls for accountability in cases of sexual misconduct, implying they had gone too far.

“This is beyond Supreme Court. This has everything to do with our country,” Trump said. “When you are guilty until proven innocent, it is just not supposed to be that way ... In this case you are guilty until proven innocent. I think that is a very, very dangerous standard for our country.”

Trump attacked Democrats and others for bringing forth the allegations.

“They’re actually con artists, because they know how quality this man is, and they’ve destroyed a man’s reputation,” the president said. “They know it’s a big, fat con job. And they go into a room and I guarantee you they laugh like hell at what they’ve pulled off on you and on the public.”

Yet Trump refused to rule out withdrawing Kavanaugh’s nomination, and speculated about nominating a woman in Kavanaugh’s stead, even as the White House and Kavanaugh himself have spent the past 48 hours staunchly insisting that they will forge forward.

“I can’t tell you. I have to watch tomorrow,” he said. “I’m gonna see what happens tomorrow. I’m gonna be watching ... I’m gonna see what’s said.”

Conservative women are leading the defense of Kavanaugh.

Trump said that if George Washington himself were nominated, Democrats would vote against the father of the country. “Didn’t he have a couple of things in his past?” he said, seeming to acknowledge that Kavanaugh might have skeletons in his closet. Trump also bluntly explained his willingness to look past allegations for political expediency, pointing to his support of the former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual misconduct with several young girls. “Roy Moore was a Republican candidate, and I would have rather had a Republican candidate win,” Trump said.

But it was Trump’s comments about the allegations against him that were the most bizarre. Each time a high-profile man is accused of sexual misconduct, it serves as a reminder that at least 19 women have brought allegations against the president himself. The official White House line is that all 19 are lying. The president went a step beyond that on Wednesday, claiming that the women were paid to lodge the claims, and that after several of them recanted, the media refused to cover it. There is no evidence for this; the claim is evidence of a president either increasingly untethered from reality or ever more willing to dissemble.

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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/donald-trumps-press-conference-was-complete-disaster/571438/