Trump misleads on Brett Kavanaugh accusers on eve of Election Day 2018

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Sean Hannity spoke from the stage of President Donald Trump’s last midterm election rally in Missouri on Monday, after Fox News Channel and its most popular personality had insisted all day that he wouldn’t. (Nov. 6)
AP

President Donald Trump misleadingly said “the accuser of Brett Kavanaugh” had “admitted she never met him” at a Monday rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

One woman who had claimed to have sent an anonymous letter accusing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of badual misconduct did recant her story last week, but Trump’s language appeared to imply that Christine Blasey Ford had changed her story.

The psychology professor has not deviated from her badertion at Kavanaugh’s Sept. 27 confirmation hearing that she is “100 percent” certain Kavanaugh badaulted her while they were both high school students. 

“You saw what happened on Friday also, we had great job numbers, but we also had something else: the accuser of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who is a fine man, the accuser admitted she never met him, she never saw him, he never touched her, talked to her, he had nothing to do with her. She made up the story,” Trump said. 

“It was false accusations, it was a scam, it was fake. It was all fake,” he continued angrily, as the crowd began to chant, “lock her up.” 

The president also suggested investigators “look at the rest of them” because Kavanaugh “suffered” as a result of the accusations. 

Because Ford was by far the most-reported-on and best known Kavanaugh accuser, Trump’s language could easily have been mistaken as referring to her. But he was actually referring to an accusation that received relatively little media attention. 

At a rally in Indiana earlier Monday, Trump gave somewhat more context, saying “one of” Kavanaugh’s accusers, as opposed to “the accuser,” had recanted. 

More: Takeaways from report on Kavanaugh allegations

On Friday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grbadley, R-Iowa, referred Judy Munro-Leighton to the FBI for questioning after she took responsibility for a “Jane Doe” letter received by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on Sept. 25 that accused Kavanaugh of badual badault. 

According to a report released last week by the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee, Munro-Leighton admitted to investigators on Thursday that she was not actually Jane Doe and had claimed that she was to “get attention.” She said she had never met Kavanaugh. 

Grbadley has referred two other Kavanaugh accusers to the Justice Department for suspected false statements and obstruction. 

But Ford and Deborah Ramirez, who alleges Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a Yale University party, have not recanted their stories and the true author of the allegations in the “Jane Doe” letter remains unknown. 

In addition to immigration and the economy, Trump has made the badual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh a central part of his closing argument heading to the midterms. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the attempts to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation “fired up” the Republican base. Democrats, on the other hand, believe the #MeToo movement and outrage over the fact Kavanaugh was confirmed despite the allegations against him will mobilize their own voters. 

Trump hones midterm campaign themes: Kavanaugh, impeachment, nicknames

USA TODAY/Suffolk poll: There is a ‘Kavanaugh effect,’ and it boosts Democrats more than the GOP in midterms

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