Sarah Sanders Defends Trump’s Remarks About Christine Blasey Ford, Says ‘The President Was Stating The Facts’
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday defended the remarks of President Donald Trump, saying that the commander in chief was just “stating the facts” about Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony last week against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was not mocking her.
During the White House briefing with journalists, Sanders said Trump comments were backed up by a report by Rachel Mitchell, the prosecutor who conducted the questioning for Senate Republicans during last week’s hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee.
Kavanaugh, currently a federal appeals court judge, has been accused of sexual misconduct dating back to his days in high school. Ford has charged that Kavanaugh tried to rape her during a house party while both were teenagers and that the experience has haunted her the rest of her life.
Mitchell’s report to Republicans after Thursday’s hearing stated that evidence in front of the committee was not “sufficient to satisfy the preponderance-of-evidence standard” and that no “reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the committee,” NBC News reported.
“The president was stating the facts,” Sanders said during the briefing, according to ABC News. “He was stating facts that were given during Dr. Ford’s testimony.”
The network wrote that Sanders doubled down after she was pressed on Trump’s words by ABC News’ Cecilia Vega.
“Certainly the testimony by Dr. Ford was compelling but you can’t make this decision based on emotion. It has to be based on fact. They have to determine what the facts are of this case,” Sanders added, per ABC News.
“That’s one of the reasons that they asked and begged for the FBI, and delayed a hearing vote so they could get more facts on this case. We expect the FBI to turn those facts over to the Senate and they can make a determination based on that,” she continued.
Trump was showered with criticism for what some claimed was a mocking of Ford’s testimony, including by three key Republican senators Trump will need to get Kavanaugh confirmed – Arizona’s Jeff Flake, Maine’s Susan Collins, and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski.
“There’s no time and no place for remarks like that,” Flake said on NBC’s Today show Wednesday morning. “To discuss something this sensitive at a political rally is just not right. It’s just not right. I wish he hadn’t done it… It’s kind of appalling.”
In a separate interview, Collins told reporters that Trump’s words could affect how she votes on his Supreme Court nominee, according to the Washington Post.
“The president’s comments were just plain wrong,” she said, per the newspaper.
Murkowski Wednesday afternoon charged that she believed that Trump attempted the minimize Ford’s testimony with his words at the rally in Mississippi Tuesday night.
“I thought the president’s comments yesterday mocking Dr. Ford were wholly inappropriate and in my view unacceptable,” she added, per the Post.
Trump, who was in Mississippi to campaign for appointed Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, referenced the testimony in his speech in support of Kavanaugh, per CNN.
“‘How did you get home?’ ‘I don’t remember.’ ‘How did you get there?’ ‘I don’t remember.’ ‘Where is the place?’ ‘I don’t remember.’ ‘How many years ago was it?’ ‘I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know,'” Trump said, appearing to mock Ford’s answers during last week’s testimony, CNN noted.
