WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump unloaded Tuesday on both Democrats and the second woman publicly accusing his Supreme Court nominee, Brett M. Kavanaugh, of sexual misconduct, an escalation of his attacks that reflected the peril facing his nominee as the Senate weighs a confirmation vote.
Defending Kavanaugh as "a high-quality person" and "so truthful," Trump claimed the allegations against him are part of what he called a Democrats' "con game." And he bashed the second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, for being "totally inebriated" during the encounter she alleged from when she and Kavanaugh were freshmen at Yale University in the early 1980s.
"The second accuser has nothing," Trump said during a 16-minute back-and-forth with reporters as he sat beside the president of Colombia, ahead of their meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
"She was totally inebriated and all messed up, and she doesn't know," he said.
Joining a chorus of Republicans and administration officials who have questioned Ramirez's account, in hopes of saving Kavanaugh's nomination, the president scoffed at the allegations outlined in a New Yorker story published Sunday night.
"Charges come up from 36 years ago and they're totally unsubstantiated?" Trump said, incredulously. "Thirty-six years ago and nobody even knew about it?"
Asked if Ramirez should be allowed to testify before Congress, Trump responded with a highly personal attack on the 53-year-old Coloradan.
"The second accuser doesn't even know, she thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not," Trump said, his voice rising. "Admits she was drunk? She admits time lapses? This is a person, and this is a series of statements that is going to take one of the most talented intellects from a judicial standpoint in our country _ keep him off the U.S. Supreme Court?"
Trump unleashed the tirade roughly an hour after delivering his annual address at the U.N., which began with some among the diplomats and world leaders laughing when the president opened with a boast that he's accomplished "more than almost any administration in the history of our country."
Of Democrats, who have been calling for an FBI investigation of the accusations from Ramirez and Christine Blasey Ford, a psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University, Trump said: "They're con artists. They don't believe it themselves.
"They are playing a con game, and they are playing it very well, much better than Republicans," Trump continued. He added, "They wink at each other _ they know it's a con game."
Trump, who has denied multiple allegations of sexual assault against himself, cast Kavanaugh as the victim. "His wife is devastated," Trump said. "His children are devastated."
Repeatedly describing Kavanaugh, who is currently a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, as a top intellect and highly qualified nominee, the president recalled the judge telling him how he tried to be No. 1 in his Yale class.
"To me that was so believable," Trump said. "I understand college very well. I understand being No. 1 in your class."
With Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation very much hanging in the balance, Trump said "it would be a horrible insult to our country" if the judge's nomination is derailed and "a horrible, horrible thing to future political people."
