President Donald Trump said Wednesday he believes sexual assault
allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are
"false" and a "con job" raised by Democrats.
Speaking at a live news conference in New York City, Trump defended
Kavanaugh's reputation and said he wouldn't "get into" the discussion of
withdrawing Kavanaugh's nomination before he and accuser Christine
Blasey Ford testify about the accusations Thursday.
"This is one of the highest quality people that I've ever met. And
everybody that knows him says the same thing. And these are all false to
me," Trump said. "These are false accusations in certain cases, and
certain cases even the media agrees with that. I can only say that what
they've done to this man is incredible."
Trump again questioned why Ford and the other two women that have made
accusations against Kavanaugh -- Julie Swetnick and Deborah Ramirez --
didn't come forward sooner.
"I only say this: 36 years, no charge, no nothing," Trump said. "People
are going to have to make a decision, 36 years and there's no charge."
The president also accused Democrats of carrying out a "con job" by
pursuing the allegations, adding they "laugh like hell" behind closed
doors about having deceived the media and the public.
Trump added he was interested in hearing Ford's testimony and was
willing to withdraw his nomination if he believes he is guilty of the
alleged assault.
"I'm going to see what happens tomorrow. I'm going to be watching,
believe it or not," Trump said. "I'm going to see what's said. It's
possible they will be convincing."
Trump said the allegations against Kavanaugh affect him due to similar
allegations women have made against him, which he said were false.
"When you say does it affect me? Absolutely. Because I've had it many times," he said.
Trump also said he might delay a meeting with Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein scheduled for Thursday, as not to "distract" from
Kavanaugh's nomination process.
Over the weekend reports emerged that Rosenstein suggested secretly
recording Trump and discussed invoking the 25th Amendment, according to
FBI memos.
Wednesday, Trump said Rosenstein denied saying such things and added he would prefer not to fire him.
Trump opened the news conference by discussing trade, praising his trade
talks with Japan and a trade agreement with South Korea.
He also said trade negotiations with Mexico were going well, but
confirmed he had rejected a meeting request from Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau as the countries seek to renegotiate the North American
Free Trade Agreement.
Trump said he was displeased with how Canada has treated the United
States in the negotiations and that the United States was "not getting
along at all with their negotiators."
He also criticized the Federal Reserve's decision to raise the interest rate to to 2.25 percent Wednesday.
"Unfortunately they just raised interest rates a little bit," Trump said. "I am not happy about that."
When asked about achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians,
Trump said he would prefer a two-state solution, but was open to a
single-state option.
"If the Israelis and the Palestinians want one state that's OK with me,
if they want two states that's OK with me. I'm happy if they're happy,"
Trump said. "I'm a facilitator, I want to see if I can get a deal done
so that people don't get killed anymore.
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