Trump was grilled this morning by reporters on the phony Kavanaugh accusations on his way to come to North Carolina.
They want to know why the FBI isn’t investigating the accusations and even tell him the FBI would investigate if he asked them to. Here’s how he responds:
Trump says they’ve investigated Kavanaugh ‘six times before’ but that they really don’t investigate stuff like this.
But when reporters pressed him on it, Trump said he’s going to let the Senate handle it because it’s really up to them in the end anyway.
Why he suggested that they want to give ‘tremendous amounts of time’ I have no idea. Trump loves to exaggerate everything. Sheesh.
I would add that I have read that the FBI really doesn’t investigate these type of local matters. But the media is accusing Trump of lying about it, citing that they investigated Anita Hill’s allegations at Bush’s direction. But really, I don’t think that means that it falls within their regular practice. There are exceptions to every rule. That doesn’t mean Trump is lying.
Reporters also asked if Trump ‘feels anything’ for Ford, of course:
.@karentravers: You said you feel badly for Brett Kavanaugh. Do you feel anything for Christine Blasey Ford?
Pres. Trump: "Well, I'd have to see what she has to say. I've given her a lot of time, the senate has given her a lot of time … we've held up the whole hearing" pic.twitter.com/Rv4UqbWAXs
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 19, 2018
Trump says it really depends on what Ford says. He then went on to question why Feinstein and the Democrats would hold this back for so long, saying it doesn’t look good.
He added that if Ford does come forward and is credible, they’ll have to make a decision. But at this point Trump says he can’t imagine it being true about Kavanaugh:
"If she shows up and makes a credible showing, that will be very interesting," @POTUS says of Kavanaugh accuser possibly testifying. "We'll have to make a decision. But I can only say this, he is such an outstanding man. Very hard for me to imagine that anything happened. Okay?" pic.twitter.com/Wj92vPSVCp
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 19, 2018
I think that’s the long and short of his comments on Kavanaugh. Trump didn’t make any major mistakes in his comments about it which is I’m sure what the media was hoping.