GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch calls new Kavanaugh allegation 'phony'

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has been working overtime defending Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against allegations of sexual assault, and on Monday, he called the latest accusation "phony." Earlier this month, Christine Blasey Ford went public with her accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both teenagers, and on Sunday night, The New Yorker published the account of Deborah Ramirez, who said when they were freshman at Yale University, Kavanaugh exposed himself during a party and thrust his penis in her face.

Hatch, a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Monday that he is sure Ramirez is "sincere" in believing Kavanaugh exposed himself to her, but "I also think she's sincerely wrong." Asked how he knows Ramirez's allegation is phony, Hatch reportedly replied: "Because I know it is. That's why." He also said it's "amazing to me that these allegations come out of nowhere at the last minute and they weren't brought up earlier in this process and it's not untypical for our friends on the other side to pull that kind of crap."

Hatch, who has also called Ford "mixed-up," released a lengthy statement earlier in the day where he claimed to believe that "every accuser deserves to be heard." His statement included a long paragraph where he tried to discredit The New Yorker article and accused Democrats of conducting "a smear campaign" against Kavanaugh.

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He's also supporting Kavanaugh online — the Twitter page run by Hatch's office resembles a shrine to the judge, with a photo of the senator, Kavanaugh, and girls on the basketball team Kavanaugh coaches as the header. The account's tweets from the last week are all devoted to Kavanaugh, with some praising him and others slamming Hatch's Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee.