President Donald Trump on Monday seized upon an editors’ note The New York Times appended to a weekend report that detailed a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, again accusing the news media of acting as a “partner” to the Democratic Party.
“‘The New York Times walks back report on Kavanaugh assault claim.’ @foxandfriends,” Trump tweeted, parroting coverage of the incident by his favorite morning cable news program.
“The one who is actually being assaulted is Justice Kavanaugh – Assaulted by lies and Fake News!” he continued. “This is all about the LameStream Media working with their partner, the Dems.”
The Times on Saturday published an essay, adapted from a forthcoming book on Kavanaugh, written by two of the newspaper’s reporters, which reveals a previously unreported episode of alleged sexual impropriety by the Kavanaugh when he was a student at Yale University in the 1980s.
Max Stier, one of Kavanaugh’s classmates, allegedly saw him “with his pants down” at an alcohol-fueled dormitory party, “where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student,” The Times reported.
Stier, who is now president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service in Washington, reportedly told U.S. senators and FBI officials about the incident, which the FBI did not investigate, The Times said.
The revelation prompted alarm among national Democrats and calls from several of the party’s presidential candidates to launch impeachment proceedings against Kavanaugh, who was narrowly confirmed to the high court in October 2018 despite testimony by Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually attacked her at a gathering when the two were in high school.
Kavanaugh also previously faced an accusation from Deborah Ramirez, the main subject of the Times essay, who claimed he “thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent” during a drunken party when they were students at Yale.
But the most recent allegation by Stier came under heightened scrutiny on Sunday when The Times appended a note to its essay clarifying that the female student he referenced declined to be interviewed, and her friends say she does not recall the incident.
That additional information, which was reported in the book from which the essay was adapted, fueled fresh outrage among Kavanaugh’s defenders, including the president.
Trump tweeted twice more about the report on Monday morning, quoting conservative commentator and Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, and later lashing out with his own admonishment of The Times.
“DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT THESE HORRIBLE PEOPLE WILL DO OR SAY,” he wrote online. “They are looking to destroy, and influence his opinions – but played the game badly. They should be sued!”
Prior to the publication of the editors’ note, some of Kavanaugh’s detractors had criticized the Times report, which is branded online as “News Analysis” and first mentioned Stier’s new allegation several paragraphs into the essay.
On Monday night, the president broadened his attack on The Times in back-to-back tweets.
“I call for the Resignation of everybody at The New York Times involved in the Kavanaugh SMEAR story, and while you’re at it, the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax, which is just as phony!“ he wrote. “They’ve taken the Old Grey Lady and broken her down, destroyed her virtue and ruined her reputation… She can never recover, and will never return to Greatness, under current Management. The Times is DEAD, long live The New York Times!“
Trump also slammed the report several times over the weekend, charging that The Times was trying to use its coverage to influence Kavanaugh’s decisions from the bench.
