Thatâs OK, no harm done ! Keep calm and continue !
Whelan made a very compelling case for the FBI to investigate this incident.
BTW, do you think there is any chance at all Whelan didnât run this by Kavanaugh before he posted it on Twitter?
I try not to be maximally and reflexively suspicious and conspiratorial, but I have a suspicion that this walkback was planned and discussed with the ostensible victim of the theory, whoâs an old friend of Kavanaugh and current supporter. Smart lawyers donât open themselves up for slam-dunk defamation suits without testing the water a bit.
Zero. Rumors of this and suggestions that you watch Whelanâs twitter feed were all over.
I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaughâs Georgetown Prep classmate.
You made that mistake over several days and likely in consultation with others. This was not a regrettable impulse action. Canât unfuck that chicken, bro. Welcome to the rest of your life: âEd Whelan, who for political purposes once falsely accused a middle school teacher of attempted rapeâŚâ
Congratulations, you destroyed your credibility in one tweet, open yourself up to a lawsuit, and revealed yourself to be nothing more than a hack.
mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaughâs Georgetown Prep classmate
His entire, immensely long thread was about identifying the classmate he was smearing. He posted the guyâs floor plan, maps to his house, multiple pictures of him, and his name. The idea that his mistake was posting all that âin a wayâ that identified the guy is frankly insane.
I really want to speak to whoever the show runner is here, I mean I know you types love plot twists but come on. We just had highly-esteemed establishment conservative luminaries framing one of their own for a crime, and doing it right out in the open! Is that even remotely realistic?
âI made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgmentâ
That is a clear example of an understatement.
Trump just tweeted about Ford. I would guess he is hearing that Kavanaugh knew of the Whelan tweets.
Team Kavanagh is strangely desperate, no ?
Whelan is a respected GOP figure in Washington
A VERY IMPORTANT word was left out of this statement⌠I fixed it
But he still recommends Kavanaugh.
'Whelan is a respected figure in Washington 'âŚby WHOM? This is absolute BS. His âtweetâ was much too detailed. Itâs out there now and no apology can undo that. Perhaps if we had an FBI investigation some of these things would have been uncovered and looked at butâŚ
This is the kind of âscandal and diversionâ tactic that Republican operatives like Whelan and Kavanaugh, before he was a judge, began using with Bill Clinton. Itâs barely tolerable in the political arena. It wonât work as a tactic to support a Supreme Court nomination. Even if we all know that this nomination is all about politics, it canât be said openly or pursued in the same no holds barred way that a political campaign is. If Kavanaugh was involved then itâs disqualifying, period. Maybe Garrett was in on the deception, although I kind of doubt it since a middle school teacher with a wife and kids would be highly risk averse to such an accusation.
Itâs a bullshit apology intended primarily to diminish the libel risk to himself.
At this point, Trumpâs interests diverge from those of the activist GOP base and the evangelical voters. A public hearing with Dr. Ford followed by a confirmation of Kavanaugh will cost the GOP the Senate (House is likely a loss regardless). Trump has much more to fear from a Democratically controlled Congress. They will hold hearings, conduct investigations, control the news narrative, recommend indictments and may hold impeachment hearings. Mueller can use the unindicted co-conspirator route, avoid the Supreme Court and put Trump in a heap of trouble.
Trump needs McConnell to take the blame for this and get Kavanaugh to withdraw. Logic dictates that this is where things are headed, but these are strange times.
The FBI definitely now has to investigate this. All of it.
What is your theory on why it was done then?
More gray area than youâd think. Theyâre old friends and Garrettâs a Kavanaugh supporter. And they really donât think attempted rape on a kid who didnât even have money is really all that wrong. Whatâd she come around for anyway, if she didnât want to put out? Iâm not a rich person and never was, but Iâve been around them enough to know how they think. Not all, of course. There are lovely people who have money. But the nasty, privileged ones, they can be pretty atavistic.
In part simply to muddy the waters, but also to suggest in an ostensibly plausible way that Ford could be mistaken about the identity because, as others pointed out in my reading, this allows them not to have to try to discredit her. Hey presto, less political damage! Of course you were assaulted, if you say you were, wink wink! But maybe it wasnât who you think it was, you silly bit of fluff! Youâd forget your head if it hadnât been forced to the bed and your mouth covered!
âbut presented his pure guessworkâ
I think itâs far too kind to call this âguessworkd,â Ms Riga. It was a calculated attempt to muddy the waters because he wanted his guy to get confirmed. When Sarah Koenig did Serial, she and her team were genuinely reinvestigating a past crime becuase there were some questions about the conviction. They werenât actively trying to proove that the convicted person was innocent for some alterior motive. This is totally different: Whelan didnât care about Kavanaughâs guilt or innocence. He just recklessly throwing something against the wall in the hope that it would stick and lead to a SCOTUS confirmation. He wasnât âguessing,â as though he just wasnât sure. He was actively trying to misdirect. Thatâs different.
To again quote Kelly Ann Conway re retracted lies: âIt doesnât matter. Itâs out there now.â