“Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed, and intimidated his victims,” Trump said. “We will discuss this more in the coming days.”

He made sure of that. Trump's campaign invited several women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct to the second presidential debate, and the candidate held a news conference beside them and brought them to the debate itself.

AD

AD

Two years later, with Trump's Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on the line, Republicans and conservative media have largely adopted the president's strategy: When punched, counterpunch, and then ask what the guy throwing the first punch is hiding.

Whether Kavanaugh's nomination survives or fails, Republicans are asking voters (and reporters) why various accusations of wrongdoing against Democrats — some from the past, some already under investigation — aren't getting the same scrutiny.

The “what about?” pivot has been happening all week. On Monday, the conservative Washington Free Beacon pointed to three Democratic congressional candidates in California who'd taken money from the Latino-focused BOLD pac. That political action committee is chaired by Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.), who this year was accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl in 2007, a charge he vehemently denies. Cárdenas is cooperating with a House ethics investigation.

AD

AD

On Tuesday, the same outlet published a 1999 police report detailing how Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) — then a start-up chief executive, now the Democratic nominee for governor — physically prevented a female employee from leaving his office with stolen documents. Polis was not charged with anything, while the woman was charged with stealing and pleaded guilty. But a spokesman for Republican nominee Walker Stapleton uses the police report to say that Polis “doesn't think there was anything wrong in grabbing and shoving a woman.”

And Wednesday, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) asked the House Ethics Committee to probe an allegation of physical abuse made by an ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan, after his fellow Democrats faced questions about whether he should be given the same scrutiny as Kavanaugh — and denied a promotion, from congressman to state attorney general. Ellison, who denies the allegation, had been cooperating with a legal probe paid for by his Minnesota Democrats.

The charges and countercharges rely on two elements that Republican operatives intuitively understand: the press’s sensitivity to any shout of “hypocrisy” and the Democratic Party's investment in #MeToo.

AD

AD

The accusations against Ellison have drawn the most attention from those who raise questions about Democrats’ handling of accusations against people in their own party. Ellison had campaigned as if the Monahan story was being handled — as did the rest of the Minnesota Democratic ticket, which endorsed the state party's legal probe.

But as the Kavanaugh story devoured the news cycle, Democrats began to face higher-profile questions about the Minnesota congressman, culminating in CNN's Sunday interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who has been among the most outspoken senators on the accusations against Kavanaugh.

“Wouldn't the concern about Kavanaugh and Professor Ford be more credible if Democrats were also condemning similar charges against Democrats in their midst, including Congressman Ellison?” Jake Tapper asked.

AD

AD

“As far as Keith Ellison, these allegations need to be investigated, and appropriate action taken,” Hirono said.

Democrats had called for an investigation of Ellison, stopping short of a call for him to quit his race. But Hirono's comments kicked off another round of questions about Ellison, about Cárdenas, and even about Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who in 1992 wrote a column about how he once made an unwanted sexual advance, was rebuffed, and changed his “attitudes” about consent.

According to Republicans, who are urging voters to look closer at the Democrats' stories, Kavanaugh is being raked over the coals for something he denies, while Democrats are asking for a pass.

AD

“With Polis, there is a police report detailing what happened. There is no police report detailing the alleged incident between Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford,” said Republican Governors Association spokesman Jon Thompson, explaining why the Polis incident was a political story. (The police report exists because the woman was stealing documents from Polis’s company.)

AD

And then there are the Clintons. Juanita Broaddrick, one of the Bill Clinton accusers invited by Trump to the 2016 debate, has said in new tweets and interviews with conservative media that, as a survivor, she knows that her story is true and Christine Blasey Ford's is false. Kavanaugh himself brought up the Clintons in his opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, calling the accusations again him “revenge” on their behalf. Kavanaugh wrote part of the Starr report that laid grounds for impeaching President Bill Clinton.

If Kavanaugh is confirmed, we can expect the strategy of raising questions about anything potentially criminal or even questionable in Democrats’ pasts to continue. If he withdraws, the strategy might intensify — something Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) hinted at Thursday, when he suggested that if Kavanaugh was not confirmed, Republicans will take every opportunity to accuse liberal judges of misconduct.

AD

“You'd better watch out for your nominees,” Graham told Democrats.

AD

He was talking about future judicial picks. But that's a standard Republicans increasingly want to apply to Democrats, as they look to regain footing in the midterms.

AD WATCH

Wisconsin Senate: Republicans have spent the better part of a year linking Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) to the tragedy at a Tomah, Wis., VA hospital, where a veteran named Jason Simcakoski died after being over-prescribed opioids. In a new ad, Republican Leah Vukmir says Baldwin has a "some nerve" attacking her on health care, given what happened in Tomah; in an ad that Baldwin's team had been waiting for the right time to launch, Simcakoski's family thanks her for passing an a treatment reform bill named after him.

AD

New York 22: Rep. Claudia Tenney (R) has tried to make her reelection about two issues: her support for President Trump, and Democrat Anthony Brindisi's status as a member of the House majority in Albany. Her new spot is noteworthy for its use of an old clip of Brindisi saying Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been "good for this area," referring to the upstate district. That clip was first seen on Democrat Tracking, an anonymous YouTube account that is updated many times per week with no-comment clips from Democrats at town halls, debates and radio interviews, free for any Republican campaign to use.

AD

Florida Governor: Democrat Andrew Gillum ran an openly left-wing campaign for governor to win his primary — and Republicans worry that their nominee, former congressman Ron DeSantis (R), has done nothing with that material. Enter the RGA, with a spot highlighting Gillum's endorsement from Dream Defenders, a left-wing social justice organization, by quoting the organization's tweets. On imagines a "border-free tomorrow," while one says that "police and prisons have no place in 'justice.'"

POLL WATCH

Generic Ballot (Pew Research, 1,439 Voters)

Democrats - 52%

Republicans - 42%

AD

There's nothing particularly good here for Republicans; even voters motivated by the future of the Supreme Court lean Democratic. What's useful about Pew is that it drops the same sort of survey at the same point in each election cycle — and in 2010 and 2014, it captured a Republican advantage.

AD

California Governor (PPIC, 964 Likely Voters)

Gavin Newsom (D) - 51%

John Cox (R) - 39%

Democrats don't believe they can possibly lose this race, one that Newsom has been preparing for most of his adult life, and one where he faces a businessman who moved to the state from Illinois a few years ago. But his lead has halved since the summer, after an outspent Cox focused on the extremely relatable issue of lengthy waits at the DMV — and as Newsom has continued to run one of the country's most left-wing campaigns, calling for statewide universal health care. The bad news for Republicans — their measure to repeal the state's new gas tax, which they have long thought would drive turnout more than Cox, is trailing by 13 points.

California 50 (Monmouth, 401 Voters)

Duncan Hunter - 49%

Ammar Campa-Najjar - 41%

Hunter, indicted in a lurid case about his alleged misuse of taxpayer funds, remains a Republican veteran in a Republican-favoring seat full of veterans. Campa-Najjar, whose internal polls (released earlier this month) show a tied race, remains a heavy underdog. One parallel to this race may be the Senate contest in New Jersey, where despite being badly damaged by scandal, Sen. Bob Menendez (D) has never trailed Republican opponent Bob Hugin in the polls. Another: The 2006 race for New York state comptroller, when an incumbent Democrat, buried by scandal, planned to quit and let the next governor, a Democrat, replace him. He won easily.

Delaware Senate (University of Delaware, 730 Likely Voters)

Tom Carper (D) - 61%

Rob Arlett (R) - 24%

For a brief, shining moment in early September, Delaware became a battlefield in the Democratic Party's identity wars, with Carper put under pressure by a left-wing challenger. Carper won by 30 points, and in doing so began his ad and field campaigns earlier than in any race he's run since 2000 — something apparently paying dividends in his increasingly blue state. Republicans made some early noise about contesting the seat if Carper retired or lost his primary, but Arlett, a conservative county official, has raised less than $100,000.

ON THE TRAIL

On Wednesday, a temporal vortex opened up on the West Lawn of the Capitol. It was the ninth anniversary of the tea party march on Washington — an event about as large as the average presidential inauguration — and FreedomWorks, the main force behind that march, held its reunion rally for about 700 activists.

They were tasked with three missions: Confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, block the continuing resolution until and unless it included funding for a border wall, and start persuading Republicans to make Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) the next speaker of the House.

“We make this job way, way, too complicated,” Jordan said of being in Congress, looking at conservatives waving “Jordan for Speaker” and “I’m With Jim” signs. “It’s pretty basic: What did you tell the voters you were going to do when they elected you? Go do that.”

The people showing up for a tea party event in 2018, six weeks before the midterms, were hardcore Republicans — in no danger of staying home. They also epitomized the reasons that Republicans remain worried about turning out their less-frequent voters this year. Onstage, Wisconsin-based radio host Andrew Wilkow reminded the crowd multiple times of how pollsters and pundits did not predict Donald Trump’s 2016 victory.

“Remember that little meter on the New York Times — Hillary Clinton, 95 percent chance of victory?” he said at one point, drawing boos as soon as he mentioned the Times.

In interviews, activists confidently predicted that Democrats would fail to win the House of Representatives in November.

“I don’t think they have a snowball’s chance,” said Dottie Leonard, 70, who lives in Virginia’s 10th District — one of the Democrats’ top 2018 targets.

Another problem breaking into view was coming up with reasons to keep Republicans in power. The entire premise of the Jordan for speaker campaign was that the current Republican leadership had asked for complete control of Washington, gotten it, and failed.

“No more members of Congress taking orders from this place!” said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), pointing at the Capitol. “We are tired of the Washington establishment, the lobbying class, and the big-business interest class on both sides running our lives and running this Capitol!” Perry, elected in 2012, has served in only Republican House majorities.

The crowd booed at any mention of House Speaker Paul Ryan and chanted “build the wall” along with Stephen Moore, an informal economic adviser to Trump. Moore echoed the conservative House Republicans in blaming their leadership for the pre-election funding package.

“Mr. President, shut it down and do something about these deficits and debt,” Moore said.

The pivot from that to a campaign to outwork Democrats in every swing race has some obvious bumps to get over.

2020

Joe Biden. As he campaigns in the South for gubernatorial nominees, Biden's name rang out in the Senate Judiciary Committee — from Republicans, citing his 1991 argument that FBI reports “do not reach conclusions” as a way of arguing against an FBI probe of Kavanaugh. Biden spent 36 years in the Senate and, increasingly, his record there is more of a political hindrance than a boon.

Pete Buttigieg. The South Bend, Ind., mayor is making the influencer rounds at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, holding a happy hour Friday evening.

Mitch Landrieu. The former mayor of New Orleans is co-hosting that same event.

READING LIST

"Off the Hook,” by Tony Mecia and Haley Byrd

The weird, sad world of artificial-turfed congressional “constituent” calls has never been fully explored, until now.

The tools of data journalism are employed to describe what plenty of people think: Republicans' best move would be to dump Kavanaugh and replace him with a less scandal-plagued candidate, one who would restore the usual order with red state Democrats on their heels. (One possibility is to re-run the play that worked for the party in 2016, with an election that would “let the people decide” an open seat on the court, albeit with a well-known nominee already picked.)

WHAT I'M WATCHING

The Kavanaugh question is creating more pressure every day on Republican candidates for Senate. It's beginning to blow into other races, too, as the pre-election debate schedule fills up. Democrats have been passing around a video from Wednesday's gubernatorial debate in Connecticut, where GOP nominee Bob Stefanowski declined to say whether Kavanaugh should be confirmed.

“I'm gonna pass on that; that's a federal issue,” he said.

The crowd, with plenty of supporters of Democrat Ned Lamont, reacted with groans. Making a bad hand worse: Gov. Charlie Baker (R-Mass.) has since called on Kavanaugh to be defeated in the Senate, and Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.) has called for more time to ask questions of the nominee. Both are heavy favorites for reelection.

COUNTDOWN