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No, Lindsey Graham Wasn't Calling Christine Blasey Ford Trailer Trash

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  October 04, 2018 1:25 PM

Have people forgotten the Bill Clinton days or the 1992 election? Apparently, they have because of this faux outrage over what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said about Donald Trump’s remarks about Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. While not the most artful in delivery, the president went after Ford, whose allegation lacks evidence, corroborating witnesses, and key details. Ford can’t remember where the party was held, how she got there, who took her home, or how the party came together. It was here that she alleges a drunken 17-year-old Kavanaugh tried to rape her (via WaPo):

President Trump mocked the account of a woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of assault and told a Mississippi crowd that the #MeToo movement was unfairly hurting men.

Trump, in a riff that has been dreaded by White House and Senate aides, attacked the story of Christine Blasey Ford at length — drawing laughs from the crowd. The remarks were his strongest attacks yet of her testimony.

“ ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ ‘Upstairs? Downstairs? Where was it?’ ‘I don’t know. But I had one beer. That’s the only thing I remember,’ ” Trump said of Ford, as he impersonated her on stage.

“I don’t remember,” he said repeatedly, apparently mocking her testimony.

Ford has said the incident happened in an upstairs room and that she is “100 percent” certain it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her, although she has acknowledged that her memories of other details of the evening remain unclear.

At The Atlantic’s Festival, Graham defended the president while being interviewed by editor Jeffrey Golberg, where he uttered the famous James Carville line about $100 being dragged through trailer parks. Oh, and since we’ve forgotten about this era, Carville is a Democratic strategist. We can thank Yahoo! News for starting this fire (via Free Beacon):

In an interview at the The Atlantic Festival, Graham defended President Donald Trump's recentcriticismof Christine Blasey Ford.

"Everything he said was factual. He's frustrated his nominee has been treated so badly," Graham said.

"Factual? It was a personal degrading attack on someone who is a private citizen," responded interviewer Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief ofThe Atlantic.

You know, here's what's personally degrading," Graham pushed back. "‘This is what happens when you go through a trailer park with a $100 bill.'"

The audience gasped at the quote, leading Goldberg to clarify that Graham was reciting a famous line said by someone else. Graham's quote was actually a reference to a comment made by James Carville, an adviser to former President Bill Clinton, about Paula Jones, who accused Clinton of sexually harassing her in 1991.

"If you drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find," Carville said of Jones, after she went public with her accusation.

[...]

"Most of you all are too young to remember this," Graham joked to the audience.

It’s time to give credit where credit is due. Thanks to CNN’s Jake Tapper for noting the story’s origins:

Yahoo apologized...sort of.