US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the woman accusing US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault should testify next week if she wants to be heard.
Trump said that time was running out for Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor of psychology, who has called for an FBI probe into her allegation that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and muffled her cries as he tried to pull off her clothes when she was 15 and he was 17.
Ford has backtracked from earlier statements that she is ready to testify to the US Senate Judiciary Committee.
Kavanaugh, now 53, denies any such incident took place and no other direct witnesses have come forward.
Trump told journalists at the White House that he retained full faith in the judge, saying it was “very hard for me to imagine that anything happened.”
He urged Ford to take her chance at the committee hearing set for Monday, where Kavanaugh is likewise invited to speak.
Trump indicated that his patience is wearing thin, even telling political Web site The Hill that the scandal resembles what he called “the witch hunt” by a special prosecutor into allegations his campaign colluded with Russia to bring about his 2016 election victory.
“We continue to give her a lot of time. We’ve held up the whole hearing,” Trump told reporters.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wrote to Ford’s lawyers ruling out any FBI role and saying that the sole venue for airing the allegations would be the Senate hearing.
“You have stated repeatedly that Dr Ford wants to tell her story. I sincerely hope that Dr Ford will accept my invitation to do so, either privately or publicly, on Monday,” Grassley said.
Late on Wednesday, Lisa Banks, a lawyer for Ford, was quoted by the Washington Post saying that the “rush to a hearing is unnecessary and contrary to the committee discovering the truth.”
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would make a decision about how the US government would refer to the body of water commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week. Trump told reporters at the White House that he expects his hosts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will ask him about the US officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. “They’re going to ask me about that when I get there, and I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s
RSS