Right-wing media has gone into overdrive defending Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in high school.
Yesterday, it was reported that Christine Blasey Ford told the Washington Post that she had penned a letter to Sen. Diane Feinstein that contained allegations that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her while drunk at a high school party. Kavanaugh has since hired an attorney and said he is willing to answer questions about the allegations.
When details about Ford’s accusations reached the press last week, right-wing media geared up to decimate her reputation and protect Kavanaugh at all costs. The episode is reminiscent of the way right-wing media defended alleged pedophile Roy Moore when accusations surfaced during his pursuit for Senate. Media figures defending Kavanaugh are attempting to portray Ford as an aggressive liberal activist, urging people to dismiss her claims altogether, and scraping for ways to possibly destroy her reputation.
Donald Trump Jr., the adult son of the president, mocked the accusations offhand in a post on his Instagram page.
James Woods, an actor turned pro-Trump online-activist, wrote in a since-deleted tweet that Republicans must fight back against the accusations otherwise Democrats “will destroy them, one nomination, one election, one man at a time.”
If #Republicans don’t stand up to these #MeTooLynchings, the #Democrats will destroy them, one nomination, one election, one man at a time. These fabricated smear jobs are a calculated cancer. The line in the sand must be drawn. #ConfirmKavanaugh
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 17, 2018
Woods’ tweet was liked by the president’s son.
DonaldJTrumpJr liked this tweet: https://t.co/nb17vjarBg
— Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) September 17, 2018
Candace Owens, communications director for the right-wing youth group Turning Point USA, demanded Republicans immediately confirm Kavanaugh.
Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed IMMEDIATELY.
It is time for Americans to send a STRONG message to the anarchist Democrats that we will no longer tolerate their disgusting, corrupt, low-bar antics.
The #MeTooWitchhunt needs to come to an END once and for all.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) September 17, 2018
Mike Cernovich, a pro-Trump media personality who rose to prominence on the wave of the so-called “alt-right” but since attempted to publicly distance himself from the movement, suggested that Ford was not credible because she deleted her social media accounts before revealing her identity to the public. He called her accusations “straight activism.”
Christine Blasey is a far left wing activist who spent all weekend deleting her social media accounts. I didn’t name her because that wouldn’t have been nice, but this is straight activism on her part.https://t.co/fLNiSezpgx https://t.co/T1ORi6jFib
— Mike Cernovich ?? (@Cernovich) September 16, 2018
Dinesh D’Souza said the accusation was “depressingly familiar” and urged Republicans to “calmly ignore it” and “vote to confirm Kavanuagh.”
This last-minute uncorroborated accusation is now depressingly familiar. It is a political tactic and a vile one at that. The GOP should calmly ignore it & vote to confirm Kavanaugh
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) September 17, 2018
Fox News’ Tomi Lahren questioned whether Ford was a “victim or opportunist.”
Decades-old allegations against Kavanaugh come out just days before a vote....victim or opportunist?
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) September 16, 2018
Fox News host Laura Ingraham cited a website run by a cohort of conspiracy theorists still claiming that former DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was shot and killed in Washington in 2016, may have been murdered for political reasons on the order of people close to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Laura Ingraham out here contributing to the news cycle by sharing a website run by a Seth Rich thruther pic.twitter.com/kQerYNcnFe
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) September 17, 2018
The article Ingraham shared suggests that because Kavanaugh’s mother allegedly ruled on a house foreclosure that affected the accuser’s parents, that the allegations against Kavanuagh are but petty revenge. These claims have worked their way around the right-wing media ecosystem, passing through more established right-wing sites, such as Townhall, Newsmax and Gateway Pundit.
Accuser Christine Ford's PARENTS Were Defendants in a 1996 Foreclosure Case, Presided Over by Kavanaugh’s Mother https://t.co/P2DcJ8nvmK
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) September 17, 2018
Breitbart writer Penny Starr dedicated a piece on the website to bolstering the fact that Ford told a newspaper that she had created a pink knitted hat shaped to look like a human brain after seeing “pussy hats” at the Women’s Marches in 2017.
Conservative columnist Erick Erickson went mask-off and admitted that since Kavanaugh is expected to undo Roe v. Wade, his confirmation was more consequential than the accusations brought against him, writing that liberals are “perfectly willing to destroy a man's reputation in order to keep destroying children.”
