Last week, after the public learned about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump seemed eager to say the right things, and in the process, he established a couple of interesting standards.
“Look, if she shows up and makes a credible showing, that’ll be very interesting, and we’ll have to make a decision,” the president said last Wednesday, raising the prospect of pulling Kavanaugh from consideration.
As we discussed yesterday, there can be no doubt that the “show up and make a credible showing” threshold was cleared. But a day earlier, Trump presented a related standard.
“I feel that the Republicans — and I can speak for myself — we should go through a process, because there shouldn’t even be a little doubt. There shouldn’t be a doubt.”
I don’t imagine that’s a standard Senate Republicans are prepared to endorse.
Clearly, there’s a stark political divide, which yesterday’s hearing did not resolve. But if we take the president’s rhetoric at face value, and “there shouldn’t even be a little doubt” about a pending nominee for the nation’s highest court, then senators should make clear to the White House that it’s time for the president to choose someone else.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."