Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended Brett Kavanaugh and trashed the New York Times Monday over the newspaper’s report of alleged sexual misconduct against the Supreme Court justice, a key point of which had to be corrected.

The Kentucky Republican said the allegation against Kavanaugh “probably felt a little like Groundhog Day” after The New York Times reported on it over the weekend and called it “yet another poorly sourced, thinly reported unsubstantiated allegation” that was exploited by Democrats.

“Over the last couple of days leading Democrats have tried to grab on to yet another poorly sourced, thinly reported, unsubstantiated allegation against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Here they go again,” he said in the Senate.

”Senate Democrats reopening the sad and embarrassing chapter they wrote last September. The latest allegation was blasted out by a major newspaper despite the apparent lack of any, any corroborating evidence whatsoever,” he said, noting that The Times had already run a correction.

“The writers conveniently failed to note that the supposed victim herself declined to be interviewed, and several of her friends say she has no memory of any such thing happening,“ he continued. “Shoot first, correct the facts later.”

The latest claim mirrored one offered during Kavanaugh’s confirmation process by Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate who claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken party.

The Times story said the other woman supposedly involved declined to be interviewed and her friends say she doesn’t recall the episode.

Several Democratic presidential candidates immediately called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment after the article was published.