WASHINGTON: Presi­dent Donald Trump came under heavy fire on Wednes­day for mocking the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kava­naugh of sexual assault, with two key Republican senators voicing repugnance over the comments.

Jeff Flake, one of three Republicans crucial to Kavanaugh’s being appro­ved for the court but seen as undecided, called Trump’s ridicule of Christine Blasey Ford in a Mississippi campaign speech “appalling”. Senator Susan Collins, an­­other of the trio of senators yet to come out in support of the conservative jurist, said Trump’s comments “were just plain wrong”.

Trump stirred a furious backlash late Tuesday when he mocked Blasey Ford’s testimony last week on her allegation that Kavanaugh drunkenly tried to rape her in 1982 when both attended elite private high schools in suburban Washington.

Their comments injected fresh doubts over the fate of Kavanaugh, as the FBI rev­iews the allegations three women have made that the appeals court jud­­ge drank heavily and sexually abused women while he was a student in the 1980s.

Addressing the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bla­s­ey Ford spelled out some key details of the incident at a party in a private home, saying she was absolutely certain that Kavanaugh was the attacker.

But she could not remember some other details, and Trump made fun of that in front of an auditorium of supporters.

Published in Dawn, October 4th , 2018