Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has emerged as one of the most fierce defenders of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, is furious that NBC News reported on an anonymous fourth person who has accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual predation. But it was his own committee that made the allegation public. Some committee Democrats fear this anonymous report may be a false claim made only to “make all of the other accusations look frivolous,” as a senior Senate Democratic aide told a reporter.
Graham, on Fox News at Night with Shannon Bream Wednesday night, lambasted NBC News for reporting on an anonymous allegation mailed to Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) about Kavanaugh.
“You know why we know about it? Cause of NBC. To my friends at NBC: you know why conservatives distrust you so much? Because of stuff like this,” he charged. “You would never print an anonymous letter accusing a liberal nominee of wrongdoing. There is no journalistic integrity left when it comes to Trump and nominees. The idea of an a report on an anonymous accusation and giving it credibility says all you need to know about where media is when it comes to Kavanaugh and Trump.”
But the NBC report on the anonymous letter, posted earlier in the evening, was available because the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority had released a transcript that showed that its GOP staffers had asked Kavanaugh about the allegations in a phone call. “Republican Senate investigators asked Kavanaugh about the new complaint during a call on Tuesday between Kavanaugh and committee staff,” the report noted.
Graham has long served on that committee and is its third-most senior majority member. In other words, he is attacking NBC News for publishing the information that his own committee published, claiming this proves reporters have no journalistic integrity.
This would appear to support the theory that these anonymous allegations are merely an effort by Kavanaugh supporters to undermine the named accusers.
Senior Senate Dem aide tells me there's a concern the GOP is "now releasing anonymous allegations in an effort to make all allegations look frivolous. We’re focusing on the ones that have names attached." https://t.co/gdzmYJLdMM
— Elana Schor (@eschor) September 26, 2018
Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman who came forward and alleges that he attempted to rape her in the 1980s, are both set to testify Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Neither Deborah Ramirez nor Julie Swetnick, both of whom have come forward with similar allegations, has been invited to come before the committee.