As President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh continues to battle allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford as a high school student, the president is worried about the safety and well-being of America’s young men.
Before boarding Marine One Tuesday, Trump told a group of reporters that Kavanaugh had been labeled “guilty until proven innocent.” (Kavanaugh denies the allegations against him.)
A reporter asked, “What do you say to young men in America?” Trump responded “Well, I’d say that it’s a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of. This is a very difficult time.”
President Trump: "It's a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of."
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 2, 2018
Full video here: https://t.co/eIalSfbn4x pic.twitter.com/QOIB2tE8DF
He continued: “What’s happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice. It really does. You could be somebody who was perfect your entire life and somebody could accuse you of something. Doesn’t necessarily have to be a woman, as everybody says, but somebody could accuse you of something and you’re automatically guilty. But in this realm, you’re truly guilty until proven innocent. That’s one of the very very bad things that’s taking place right now.”
According to the White House pool report, filed by Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News, Trump was later asked if he had “a message for young women” as well.
Trump’s response, per Walker: “Women are doing great.”
Research has found that false rape allegations are extremely rare. In the real world, in other words, women are much more likely to be victims of sexual assault than men are to be victims of false accusations.
But Trump is apparently far more concerned about the latter than the former.
