Donald Trump’s rambling press conference in New York yesterday (Sept. 26) was peppered with outlandish statements. But one thing was consistent: multiple times, the US president said, or strongly implied, that the women who accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault are not to be believed. He sometimes went a step further, suggesting that most women who accuse men of sexual assault should be doubted. Here are all 31 instances:
1) “There was nothing [for the FBI] to investigate from at least one standpoint. They didn’t know the location. They didn’t know the time. They didn’t know the year. They didn’t know anything.”
2) “They’re actually con artists because they know how quality this man is and they’ve destroyed a man’s reputation and they want to destroy it even more.”
3) “What they’ve done to this family, what they’ve done to these children—these beautiful children of his—and what they’ve done to his wife.”
4) “I don’t think people are reluctant to come forward.”
5) “They go into a room and, I guarantee you, they laugh like hell at what they’ve pulled off on you and on the public.”
6) “This is one of the highest quality people that I’ve ever met, and everybody that knows him says the same thing.”
7) “These are all false — to me, these are false accusations in certain cases.”
8) “They know it’s a big, fat con job.”
9) “People are going to be scared because we could say it about you. ‘Thirty-five years ago, you met some…’ And you might not know what’s going on.”
10) “Why did they wait so long?”
11) “The FBI did a very thorough investigation.”
12) “This is a big con job.”
13) “Thirty-six years — no charge, no nothing.”
14) “All of a sudden, the hearings are over and the rumors start coming out.”
15) “When I look at what’s happened to the reputation of a great gentleman—a great intellect; a brilliant man; somebody that has a chance to be one of our great Supreme Court Justices in history, intellectually—I think it’s a shame.”
16) “They don’t even know how many years ago because nobody knows what the time is. That’s a long time.”
17) “Every single person knows him; a lot of people know him well. And those people don’t believe what’s going on.”
18) “I mean there is a chance that her parents could have reported it 36 years ago.”
19) “Well, it does impact my opinion. You know why? Because I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me.”
20) “People want fame. They want money. They want whatever. So when I see it, I view it differently than somebody sitting home watching television, where they say, `Oh, Judge Kavanaugh… this or that.'”
21) “So when you say, does it affect me in terms of my thinking with respect to Judge Kavanaugh? Absolutely. Because I’ve had it many times.”
22) “It’s a con job. You know, confidence — it’s a confidence job.”
23) “Yeah, it’s a con job. And it’s not a bad term. It’s not a bad term at all.”
24) “I’ve had a lot of people talking about this to me, with respect to what’s happening, because it’s a horrible precedent.”
25) “Maybe, if she’ll say something — but in the meantime, I have to tell you, he’s one of the highest quality human beings.”
26) “This is a very big moment for our country because you have a man who is very outstanding, but he’s got very strong charges against him — probably charges that nobody is going to be able be — to prove.”
27) “Honestly, nobody knows who to believe.”
28) “This could go on forever. Somebody could come and say, ‘Thirty years ago, twenty-five years ago, ten years ago, five years ago, he did a horrible thing to me. He did this. He did that. He did that.'”
29) “And honestly, it’s a very dangerous period in our country. And it’s being perpetrated by some very evil people.”
30) “It’s a con game.”
31) “In this case, you’re guilty until proven innocent. I think that is a very, very dangerous standard for our country.”