New York Times reporters Jeremy Peters and Susan Chira shamelessly played both the race card and the Trump card to dismiss and mock Brett Kavanaugh’s anger at being called a rapist in front of America, in Sunday’s “Court Pick Steals a Page From Trump’s Playbook On White Male Anger.” The word choice gave away the paper’s disbelief at the effrontery of the conservative Supreme Court nominee actually defending his own honor.
For many conservatives, especially white men who share Mr. Trump’s contempt for the left and his use of divisive remarks, the clash over Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation has become a rallying cry against a liberal order that, they argue, is hostile to their individual rights, political power and social status...
Apparently the left screaming "rapist" without evidence isn't "divisive."
The Times actually tried and failed miserably to link Kavanaugh’s impassioned (“furious”) denials to Trump’s rhetoric, reducing his righteous rage about being accused of rape to a cynical political stunt.
Judge Kavanaugh’s furious denials of the allegation and his tirade before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday also underscore how Mr. Trump’s own angry rhetorical defenses of himself -- including his insistent dismissals and demeaning insults in response to sexual misconduct accusations against him -- have become such an effective playbook with the Republican base. Republican politicians now regularly portray critics, Democrats, the news media and even people making allegations of sexual misconduct as liars or fakes, and strike aggrieved tones as they present themselves as victims of conspiracies or leftist cabals.
The comparisons became even more odious.
Judge Kavanaugh himself -- who insisted before the Senate that he had earned his success by “busting my tail”-- has now taken a page from Mr. Trump, who often boasts about his intelligence and how he attended the best schools. Like the president, Judge Kavanaugh has become an avatar for the resentments of Americans like those who saw Mr. Trump’s election as a restoration of power they felt they had lost and a blow against elites they felt had devalued them.
Since Kavanaugh went to good schools, the Times seems to consider him a justified target, whether the attempted rape charge is true or not.
In fact, few Americans qualify as more privileged and elite than Judge Kavanaugh, a prep school graduate with two Yale degrees who is on the brink of ascending to one of the most powerful positions in the country. And the notion that they are victims of attack is in sharp contrast to what many across the political spectrum saw at the Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday: a woman, Dr. Blasey, reluctantly coming forward to reveal one of the most painful moments in her life.
Peters and Chira don’t bother backing this assertion up:
Many women, and plenty of men, are now infuriated that Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination is still alive and will likely to come to a vote....
Kavanaugh was again attacked for defending himself against rape charges.
For his part, Judge Kavanaugh hurled conspiratorial accusations at Democrats, charging them with exacting “revenge on behalf of the Clintons” and evoking images of the country on a precipice....
It wasn't just Kavanaugh; anyone who dares criticize the Democrats' politicized handling of the charges are just acting like Trump -- even Justice Clarence Thomas, from a quarter century ago.
Now it’s others who are sounding Trump-like notes of aggrievement: Mr. Graham, a one-time critic of the president who has now became an ally; and Judge Kavanaugh, whose irate, at times contemptuous, performance at the hearing was like nothing Washington has seen since Clarence Thomas’ confirmation 27 years ago. Their words were all the more welcome to conservatives’ ears because they were defiant, even belligerent -- the kind of hold-nothing-back aggression against Democrats that Mr. Trump uses to rouse his base of voters.
