For most of this week, headlines revolved around the confirmation of Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. A former classmate of Kavanaugh's, Christine Blasey Ford, accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her more than 30 years ago. According to Ford, at a high school party in the 1980s, Kavanaugh drunkenly forced her onto a bed, groped her, and attempted to stifle her screams by placing a hand over her mouth before she was able to escape. Ford will now give public testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, September 27, though she and her attorney are still negotiating the terms under which she will appear. Meanwhile, more details of Kavanaugh's behavior during his undergraduate studies at Yale have also emerged, adding to the scandal.
Trump is standing staunchly by Kavanaugh. At a speech in Las Vegas this week, Trump told the audience: "Brett Kavanaugh is one of the finest human beings you ever have the privilege of knowing or meeting...He is a fine, fine person." Further, although Trump showed some restraint early in the week, he eventually was unable to help himself and attacked Kavanaugh's accuser via Twitter, questioning why she didn't come forward to report the incident sooner and suggesting the incident did not occur.
Trump also changed his tune on another subject this week: declassification of documents. On Monday, Trump demanded that certain documents relating to the FBI's June 2017 application to monitor former Trump foreign policy aide Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as well as materials relating to Foreign Intelligence Service Act applications. Democrats and intelligence experts were outraged by the demand, which they saw as a threat to confidential sources and another attempt to undermine the intelligence community. But by Thursday, Trump made comments to Fox News's Sean Hannity suggesting that he was turning the matter over to the Justice Department for review and he may not press the issue for now.
Trump visited areas impacted by Hurricane Florence, which was either a PR win or a PR disaster, depending on your perspective. Meanwhile, Trump's administration admitted this week that it has lost track of a further 1,500 immigrant children.
- https://www.npr.org/2018/09/23/650916906/kavanaugh-accuser-christine-blasey-ford-to-testify-thursday
- https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/democrats-know-of-second-kavanaugh-accuser-new-yorker-magazine-reports/
- https://www.theroot.com/brett-kavanaugh-belonged-to-a-frat-that-once-chanted-no-1829225336
- https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/trump-kavanaugh-accusations/570973/
- https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/21/politics/donald-trump-fisa-declassification-walk-back/index.html
- http://video.foxnews.com/v/5838084991001/?#sp=show-clips
- https://www.wired.com/story/internet-week-188/
- https://www.npr.org/2018/09/23/650916906/kavanaugh-accuser-christine-blasey-ford-to-testify-thursday
- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/us/politics/us-migrant-children-whereabouts-.html