A day after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford publicly testified about her allegation of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) offered a stunningly self-defeating defense of the judge.
Cruz argued that if Kavanaugh was really a sexual predator, he’d likely face multiple allegations.
“All of us know from human experience that if someone is a sexual predator and someone is committing the actions that had been alleged, that it is very rare that they are a one-time offender,” Cruz said. “If someone is carrying out this conduct, they have a pattern of doing so over and over and over. We have seen powerful men throughout society, in politics and journalism and Hollywood, whose careers have been ended, but ended for a pattern of harassment and abuse that typically extends decades. When someone behaves like this, they behave like this over and over. There’s no credible indication that that’s occurred.”
There’s just one problem — three women have now independently come forward to accuse Kavanaugh of assault or misconduct. So Cruz’s suggestion that Ford’s allegation isn’t part of “a pattern” is bogus.
What’s more, in other instances of sexual assault allegations that Cruz referred to, accusers didn’t all come forward at the same time. After the New York Times ran their initial story on allegations against Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, new accusers came forward over a period of months. The latest such allegation was made as recently as August. Of course, rather than wait for a full investigation, Republicans are trying to ram through Kavanaugh’s confirmation as quickly as possible.
During another part of his remarks, Cruz defended Republicans’ refusal to call for an FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh made publicly by Ford and two other women. Cruz also defended Republicans’ refusal to subpoena to one alleged eyewitness to the assault on Ford, Mark Judge, asserting that all Democrats really want is “to see a man who struggled with addiction most of his life sitting before this committee and [pleading] the fifth.”