Kennedy offers comments on president's comments during Fall River stop Wednesday

FALL RIVER — President Donald Trump’s mocking of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee during one of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings this week appalled many, including Congressman Joe Kennedy III.

“The president’s comments were inappropriate, they were disappointing, they were despicable and they never should have been uttered by anybody with reference to a victim of sexual assault,” Kennedy said Wednesday during a Fall River campaign stop at Barcelo's Bakery with Democratic candidate for governor Jay Gonzalez.

Asked if Kavanaugh should be appointed to the Supreme Court, Kennedy was quick with “I don’t.”

The president of the United States mocked a survivor of sexual assault. Not one Republican Senator appears ‘appalled’ enough to act.

— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy)October 3, 2018

“Look, I think the FBI needs to do that investigation and they need to come back with their findings. The question isn’t so much should Judge Kavanaugh be there or not. The question is should a judge who has had credible allegations of sexual assault, who in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the American public showed a harsh personal bent, seems to have misrepresented his past on a number of occasions to the outright mistruths about his various characterizations, behavior and other things from 35 years ago,” said Kennedy.

Trump sought during a campaign event Mississippi Tuesday night to highlight holes in the account Ford gave in sworn testimony to the Judiciary Committee last week.

“ ‘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 that the incident happened in an upstairs room at a gathering of teenagers 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.



The day after Ford’s testimony, Trump said she was “very compelling” and a “very credible witness.”

“Should that individual be on the Supreme Court or another justice picked by a Republican president and confirmed by a Republican Senate?”

Kennedy made it clear his comments aren't based on partisan politics, but on whether or not Kavanaugh is fit to serve on the Supreme Court.

“This isn’t a question of Judge Kavanaugh versus some progressive justice, this is a question of whether Judge Kavanaugh is entitled to this seat.”

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com.

Material from the Washington Post was used in this report.