The controversy over Brett Kavanaugh’s second accuser—Deborah Ramirez, who told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a college party—continues to pay dividends for the G.O.P. While Senate Democrats have worked to keep the focus on Kavanaugh’s first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, Republicans have eagerly seized on Ramirez’s fuzzy memory and the lack of witnesses to paint Kavanaugh as the victim of a witch hunt ahead of Thursday’s Senate hearing. On Monday night, Kavanaugh previewed how he might use that argument, himself, noting in an interview with Fox News that The New York Times “could not corroborate this story.“ On Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump also joined the fray, breaking his silence after several days of relative restraint.

“I think he is just a wonderful human being,” Trump said of his Supreme Court nominee, from the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. “I think it is horrible what the Democrats have done. It is a con game, they are really con artists,” he said. “And now a new charge comes up and she says it may not be him and there are gaps, and she was totally inebriated and all messed up, and she doesn’t know.” When asked if Ramirez should testify, Trump dug in:

The second accuser doesn’t even know, she thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not. Admits she was drunk. She admits time lapses, this is a person, and this is a series of statements that is going to take one of the most talented intellects from a judicial standpoint in the country in our country—keep him off the Supreme Court? He has the chance to be one of the greatest justices in the United States Supreme Court. What a shame.

As the clock ticks down to Thursday’s hearing, Republicans have largely refrained from impugning Ford’s character, with even Kavanaugh painting her as credible but confused—“I am not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps Dr. Ford at some point in her life was sexually assaulted by someone in some place,” he said on Fox. (Senator Orrin Hatch has suggested that perhaps Ford’s memory of the attack is “mixed up.”) Even for Republicans, the politics of #MeToo have been too explosive to risk attacking a victim—leaving Kavanaugh’s supporters to limit their criticism to alleged Democratic skulduggery. But Ramirez changed the equation, prompting the right to howl that The New Yorker’s story was a deliberate smear. “I read the . . . article, it’s pretty thin, no one else remembered any of it,” Senator Bob Corker told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. “This is really getting kind of carried away, it’s feeling more like a circus. But again, I did feel like this first accuser should be heard.”

At least two Republican senators remain open to hearing both Ford and Ramirez out. On Tuesday, Lisa Murkowski told The New York Times that she was withholding her judgment and warned her colleagues that “it’s not about whether or not Judge Kavanaugh is qualified” but “whether or not a woman who has been a victim at some point in her life is to be believed.” Susan Collins has said that investigators for the Senate Judiciary Committee should also reach out to Ramirez “to question her under oath about what she is alleging happened.” With Republican control of the Senate hinging on a one-seat majority, the defection of one or both women could potentially tip the scales for Kavanaugh, dooming his nomination.