By Oliver Roeder
FiveThirtyEight
September 24, 2018
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he’s not going anywhere. He now faces two allegations of sexual assault, including attempted rape when he was in high school and, during his time at Yale, that he exposed himself to a woman “at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.” The newest charge is according to reporting in The New Yorker. Kavanaugh denies both allegations, and President Trump is standing by him. “Judge Kavanaugh is an outstanding person and I am with him all the way,” Trump said on Monday.
For now, Republicans have rallied around the judge. But what if that support starts to erode as more is revealed or if the planned testimony of Kavanaugh and the woman who says he tried to rape her, Christine Blasey Ford, proves more damaging? The GOP has a deep bench of conservative justices ready to take his place.