While Brian Stelter has unleashed on “the right wing smear machine” for attacks against Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford, the CNN host admitted that claims made by a second woman should be viewed with a “lot of skepticism.”
During a “CNN Newsroom” segment on Sunday, Stelter spoke about a report by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer published by The New Yorker detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by the Supreme Court nominee made by his Yale classmate, Deborah Ramirez.
The 53-year-old came forward with her accusations after it took her six days of “assessing her memories” and despite admitting that there were “significant gaps” in her memory because she was drunk at the time Kavanaugh allegedly exposed himself to her face during a dorm party.
Kavanaugh and the White House issued statements refuting the accusations and labeling the report “a smear, plain and simple.” The White House Press Office issued a lengthy statement highlighting portions of the report and rebutting the claims made by Ramirez.
Stelter noted on Sunday that the claims in the report have “not been corroborated to any degree.”
“In fact, there are people who have been named as eyewitnesses to this alleged incident who say they no do not remember it,” he added. “It is written by us two outstanding reporters who have been on this case for a while. Farrow has been out in California digging into this as have other reporters in recent days trying to encourage this woman to speak out. Apparently she was quite reluctant to do so, afraid to do so.”
Stelter pointed to the use of the “key detail” of the phrase “second woman” used in the report “even though I think we should enter this with a lot of skepticism given the lack of corroboration and given the fact that she did not share this with anyone apparently six years ago the way that Ford did.”
He pointed to Ford’s claim that she spoke about a drunken Kavanaugh allegedly groping her at a party when the two were in high school nearly four decades ago during therapy sessions and that she told her husband about the encounter in 2012.
“There’s no similar corroboration in this news story,” Stelter concluded.
During his “Reliable Sources” program on Sunday, Stelter slammed the internet and media’s “right wing smear machine” for attacking Ford, asking viewers to put themselves in her shoes.
Try to put yourself in Christine Blasey Ford’s shoes for a minute… pic.twitter.com/AeMeWbFrW1
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 23, 2018
“Everybody on TV is talking about you,” he said with a complete lack of a sense of the irony of his words. “Of course, none of them actually know you, but they all sound like they do. They all sound so confident like they want to know the truth, or they do know the truth, but only you know your truth.”
Sounds like Stelter could say the same for Kavanaugh who has been unfairly subjected to a political smear campaign by Democrats.
The temporary lapse into truth by Stelter questioning the newly revealed allegations by Ramirez were echoed by many others on social media.
Read this paragraph from the New York Times, then re-read it. https://t.co/6Qt4UnW4F2 pic.twitter.com/ngigW5au5u
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 24, 2018
So she was reluctant to say Kavanaugh was involved, but having thought it over for several days as his confirmation drew near, she’s suddenly sure.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 24, 2018
Let me summarize the “bombshell” from the New Yorker. A woman named Debbie Ramirez is now pretty sure — but she wasn’t all that sure until this week — that Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself as a joke while they were both wasted and playing a drinking game at college.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 24, 2018
This one is even flimsier than the original, and the allegations are coming from someone who admits to being completely inebriated. Give me a break.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 24, 2018
All alleged eyewitnesses who spoke to New Yorker deny it.
The corroborating “witness” is an anonymous classmate who was not at the party but claims second-hand knowledge. https://t.co/9WJm4eMYDv
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) September 24, 2018
“After six days of carefully assessing her memories” … is quite a sentencehttps://t.co/xAVqbuw28b
— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) September 24, 2018
The left made a mistake with this Ramirez story. It isn’t just how embarrassingly flimsy it is; she was inebriated; took six days to find memories; everyone denies it. But it strongly suggests the Ford delay demands were about cooking this up. Destroys credibility all around.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 24, 2018
This is straight up character assassination with no pauses at this point. pic.twitter.com/6MqUtvDkza
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) September 24, 2018
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