President Trump complained on Wednesday that “evil people,” including women in search of fame and fortune, routinely fabricate sexual assault charges against powerful men, and argued that his own experience with such allegations makes him more skeptical of the accusations threatening to bring down Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, his nominee for the Supreme Court.

In a remarkable and rambling 83-minute news conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Trump was by turns combative, humorous and boastful. He defended Judge Kavanaugh and railed against what he called the “big, fat con job” that he said Democrats were perpetrating to derail the nomination, even as he suggested he could still jettison his pick depending on the outcome of a high-profile hearing on Thursday.

Here are five takeaways from the extraordinary exchange:

The president identifies with a man accused of sexual assault, again.

Mr. Trump stopped short of branding the three women accusing Judge Kavanaugh of sexual assault or misconduct as liars, although he did say his nominee faced “false accusations.” He said he was eager to hear the testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by Christine Blasey Ford, who has said Judge Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party in the 1980s when both were in high school.

But the president made it clear that he believed his nominee and considered the allegations against the judge as part of a smear campaign hatched by Democrats, not credible charges. In doing so, Mr. Trump, as he has many times in the past, sided with a man accused of sexual misconduct rather than the women making those claims. And he made clear that his penchant for doing so is rooted in being accused of sexual assault himself — he says falsely — and his anger at having to contend with such allegations.