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Donald Trumprevealed thesexual assault accusations made against himhave influenced his thinking regarding the sexual misconduct allegations made against his Supreme Court nomineeBrett Kavanaugh.
During a rare solo press conference on Wednesday, the president defended Kavanaugh, who has beenaccused of sexually assaulting three women, including Christine Blasey Ford, whoaccused Kavanaughof pinning her down to a bed, groping her and trying to remove her clothes at a high school party in the early 1980s.
“This is one of the highest quality people that I’ve ever met. These are all false to me, all false accusations in certain cases … I can only say that what they’ve done to this man is incredible,” Trump said.
Describing Kavanaugh as “an absolute gem” who has been treated “very unfairly,” Trump called the Democrats’ handling of the Kavanaugh accusations a “big con job.”
“They know what they’re doing. They know it’s a big, fat con job,” Trump added. “They go into a back room and they talk with each other and they laugh at what they’re getting away with. It’s a con game, and that’s what they play. And that’s about the only thing they do well.”
Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Kavanaughhas denied all allegations of sexual assault. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, he said, “I never sexually assaulted anyone. I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter. The girls from the schools I went to and I were friends.”
Kavanaugh denied Swetnick’s allegations in astatement on Wednesday, saying, “This is ridiculous and fromThe Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”
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Kavanaugh and Fordare both expected to testifyabout the allegations before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
When asked if he believes Kavanaugh’s accusers are “liars,” Trump responded, “I can’t tell you if they’re liars because I have to hear from them. I’m going to see what’s said, it’s possible that they can be convincing.”
The president added, “Does it affect me? Absolutely. …. When you say does it affect me in terms of my thinking with respect to Judge Kavanaugh, absolutely. … You know what? I could be persuaded. I can’t tell you. I have to watch tomorrow.”
Asked if would potentially withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination, Trump said: “If I thought he was guilty of something like this, yeah, sure.”
RELATED VIDEO: PEOPLE Writer Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Attack
He added, “I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me, really false charges. They want fame, they want money. I view it differently. It’s happened to me many times, many false allegations. There are many of them.”
This is not the first time Trump claimed he “never met” his accusers.
However, PEOPLE has thephotoshowing the magazine’s former correspondent Natasha Stoynoff with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on the same day that Stoynoff says hepushed her against the wall and forced a kiss on her mouth.
source: people.com
