Of course Trump plans to smear woman who says Kavanaugh assaulted her

Trump and his team are preparing an all-out assault on Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who says Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when the two of them were in high school.

Ford’s identity and her account of the assault were first revealed in a Washington Post article Sunday. And almost immediately, a Republican plot to attack and discredit her took shape.

According to Politico, multiple sources close to Trump’s White House expect Republican senators to go after Ford by attacking her credibility. They also expect Trump “to go after Kavanaugh’s accuser rather than to turn on the judge.”

But attacking Ford won’t be easy. Ford, now a 51-year-old research psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University, revealed Kavanaugh’s assault in harrowing detail.

She said that Kavanaugh held her down, groped her, and tore at her clothes. During the violent assault, she said, “I thought he might inadvertently kill me.”

When she tried to yell over the loud music that was playing at the time, Ford said Kavanaugh forced his hand over her mouth to silence her.

Her account is backed up by therapy notes from two different therapists. In 2012, Ford discussed the attempted rape with a couples therapist, and in 2013, she sought individual treatment for the long-term trauma that resulted. Ford has also taken a polygraph, which concluded that she was being truthful.

Those facts would be difficult for anyone to contend with, let alone an admitted sexual predator like Trump. Trump infamously bragged on tape about routinely committing sexual assault, and has been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by at least 19 women.

On Monday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway tried to push back on the reporting that Trump will attack Ford, saying that “Ford should not be insulted and should not be ignored.”

But Donald Trump, Jr. began attacking Ford even before she went public, mocking her in an Instagram post that equated Kavanaugh’s attempt to rape her with a grade-school love note.

Trump himself has spent his life attacking women, especially those who accuse men of sexual assault or harassment. He has called all of his own accusers liars, and his press secretary has repeated those smears.

Trump stood by failed Senate candidate Roy Moore even after Moore was credibly accused of serial pedophilia.

And according to Bob Woodward’s new bombshell book, Trump told a friend who had been accused of misconduct, “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead.”

That appears to be Trump’s strategy for Kavanaugh as well. One source, a lawyer close to the White House, told Politico that the nomination would not be withdrawn.

But the American people should know better than to believe the petty attacks from an admitted sexual predator over the powerful words of a woman who was willing to brave those attacks in order to tell her story.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.