Washington, Oct 3 (EFE).- Democratic lawmakers and some members of the Republican Party on Wednesday rejected the jibes made by President Donald Trump about one of the alleged victims of sexual misconduct by his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
After the president at a political rally in Mississippi on Tuesday publicly mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford regarding her declaration before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, some lawmakers stepped up to censure Trump’s words, including Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, a key vote in the judge’s confirmation to the high court.
“There’s no time and no place for remarks like that. To discuss something this sensitive at a political rally is just not right.
It’s just not right. I wish he hadn’t had done it,” the Arizona senator told NBC’s “Today” show on Wednesday, adding, “It’s kind of appalling.”
Besides Flake, another Republican legislator, Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate, also expressed her disgust over Trump’s remarks.
“The president’s comments were just plain wrong,” Collins, another key vote that Republicans – with their narrow 51-49 Senate majority – must have in confirming Kavanaugh, told reporters.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, defended Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“There’s no chance in the world they’re going to scare us out of doing our duty,” McConnell said, adding that the Senate will vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation this week. “I don’t care how many members they chase, how many people they harass here in the halls, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: We will not be intimidated by these people.”
Meanwhile, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono told CNN that “We can always count on the president to go down to the lowest common denominator – mock people, call people names, attack them – this is what he does.”
California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, who is on the Judiciary Committee that heard Ford’s accusations against Kavanaugh, was one of the progressives who quickly came out to defend her.
“Dr. Ford is a profile in courage. She knew what she was up against when she came forward but spoke out because she felt it was her civic duty. She deserves better,” Harris said in a Twitter post after the controversial remarks the president made Wednesday night at the campaign rally.
“What neighborhood was it in? ‘I don’t know.’ Where’s the house? ‘I don’t know.’ Upstairs, downstairs? ‘I don’t know.’ ‘But I had one beer, that’s the only thing I remember,'” Trump said in ridiculing Ford’s Senate testimony just days after he had said that she had been a “credible” and “compelling” witness.