WASHINGTON _ In a Friday morning tweet storm after days of restraint, President Donald Trump defended his embattled Supreme Court nominee, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and sought to cast doubt on the woman accusing the conservative jurist of attempting to rape her when they were in high school.
Portraying the allegations by Christine Blasey Ford as part of a partisan effort to derail Kavanaugh's confirmation, Trump repeated his declarations this week, as he did Thursday night at a political rally in Las Vegas, that his nominee is a good person.
"Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don't want to know the answers, they just want to destroy and delay," Trump said in the first of three tweets. "Facts don't matter. I go through this with them every single day in D.C."
Just days after stating that Ford's story would be heard, Trump reverted to the more recalcitrant, partisan stance for which he's better known, blaming the controversy on his usual foils, the media and Democrats.
In a second tweet, Trump questioned why Ford didn't file charges after the alleged incident, echoing some allies in conservative legal circles who, in recent days, have attempted to sow doubts about her story.
"I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents," Trump tweeted. "I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!"
His third tweet underlined that point: "The radical left lawyers want the FBI to get involved NOW. Why didn't someone call the FBI 36 years ago?"
The president's reversal of strategy, going on the attack, comes as his administration had hunkered down in defense of Kavanaugh but without demeaning Ford, a reflection of the huge political stakes in this fight less than two months ahead of November's midterm elections. It tracks with his own longstanding refusals to acknowledge sexual abuse allegations against him from multiple women.
Trump's decision to lean in to this fight in recent days is also an effort to sway public opinion ahead of possible hearings next week. Kavanaugh, who continues to flatly deny Ford's allegations, has offered to appear again before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday to answer questions about the matter.
Ford has signaled a willingness to testify before the same committee next week, although her attorneys have said that she will not be able to appear on Monday, the day the committee chairman initially proposed.
