Conservative writer Erielle Davidson criticized President Trump on Friday for mocking at campaign events former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Trump said at a Thursday rally in Minnesota that Franken folded up “like a wet rag” after eight women accused him of sexual misconduct. A day earlier, the president mocked Ford for not remembering several details of Kavanaugh’s alleged attack on her when they were both in high school.
“President Trump should stay out of the sphere of accusations. When he was calling out Kavanaugh’s accusers, I didn’t appreciate it then — I don’t appreciate him calling out Franken now,” Davidson told “Rising” co-hosts Krystal Ball and Ned Ryun.
Trump was in Franken’s home state stumping for Republican Senate candidate Karin Housely, who is currently running against Franken’s replacement, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who took over the seat after he resigned.
“It was like, ‘Oh, he did something,’ ‘Oh I resign. I quit,’” Trump said at a rally in Rochester.
Davidson, a contributing writer at The Federalist, added that she was also disappointed with the way Franken handled his resignation last year.
“I see this as two men taking jabs at each other, which I think given the seriousness of the situation, I just don’t think it’s appropriate,” she told Hill.TV.
Before leaving the Senate in January, Franken issue a fiery indictment of Trump and the Republican Party, lamenting the hypocrisy of the situation and “degradation of truth” in the current political environment.
“I of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving, while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office,” he said during his final speech on the Senate floor.
At least 22 women have accused President Trump of sexual misconduct between the 1970s and 2013. The president has repeatedly denied the accusations.
— Tess Bonn
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