The lengths to which the Republican leadership will go to confirm their Federalist Society-approved Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was demonstrated after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reportedly called President Trump to castigate him over his Friday tweet criticising Kavanaugh’s accuser, according to a CNN report.
It was not out of sympathy for the alleged victim that Senator McConnell dared to criticise the president, but out of a sense that Trump was actually hurting the chances of his nominee’s confirmation by sending tweets casting doubt on the veracity of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault.
While Senator McConnell may have the same dastardly agenda as Trump, at least he is smart enough to know that, given the president’s own legion of sexual assault accusers, the president may not be the best spokesperson for Kavanaugh’s defense, particularly when he tweets out statements like this:
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. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
McConnell is said to have called the White House as soon as he saw that tweet and told Trump that his intervention in the fight over the confirmation was not especially helpful to the Republican cause, asking him to keep quiet about the issue.
The Majority Leader’s entreaty apparently worked, since Trump has remained mum on the subject ever since that tweet. A spokesperson for Senator McConnell would not confirm CNN’s report of the conversation which they attributed to “two people familiar with the call,” saying that the senator and the president “speak all the time” but that he “doesn’t have any read-outs” of their conversations.
While Trump may have acquiesced to the Majority Leader’s request right now, it remains to be seen whether the notoriously volatile and vengeful president will be able to hold his tongue until after Dr. Ford testifies on Thursday or whether McConnell will face any reprisals for his upbraiding of the White House’s main perpetrator of foot-in-mouth disease.
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Original reporting by Phil Mattingly and Maegan Vazquez on CNN.
