The Times editorial board says, sarcastically, have sympathy for the poor Republicans who tried so hard to pretend they’d improved since the shitshow over Clarence Thomas.

Leave it to Donald Trump to strip away the mask and reveal the troglodyte beneath. Administration officials reportedly labored to keep him from going on the attack against Dr. Blasey, but after a few days, the presidential id once again rose up and overwhelmed them and their message. On Friday morning, Mr. Trump tweeted:

“I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with Local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!”

Because that’s how that works – if you’re raped or attempted-raped, then you instantly report it to Local Law Enforcement Authorities and they instantly file charges and that takes care of it. Done and dusted. Local Law Enforcement Authorities always believe the victim or her loving parents; Local Law Enforcement Authorities never treat the victim or her loving parents with suspicion or contempt; judges ditto; the perp’s lawyer ditto; the jury ditto. The victim’s life is never made hell by the whole process, and justice is always served, and everything works out. Because that’s the world we live in.

Dr. Blasey has already said that she did not tell anyone about the assault at the time, much less file charges — most victims don’t. So what Mr. Trump is charging here, complete with a snide slap at Dr. Blasey’s parents, is straightforward: The woman is lying.

Of course he is. Think of all the women who have “lied” about his assaults on them. The woman is always lying, and the man is always a tragically maligned Good Guy who simply likes to grab women by the pussy when he gets a chance.

Outside of Mr. Trump’s bubble, however, it is widely recognized as no longer acceptable to respond to a woman’s claims of sexual assault by calling her a liar. Doing so carries real political risks in the age of #MeToo.

Does it though? What about the rehabilitation of Louis CK and John Hockenberry and Jian Ghomeshi? What about the hand-wringing about the men who had their lives wrecked?

As insulting as this “she’s just a confused girl” defense may be, it is modestly less offensive than the snickering boys-will-be-boys excuses emanating from certain musty corners. Or the related contention that this was a case of teenage horseplay gone awry — an innocent misunderstanding, if you will. The most head-smacking defense thus far may have come from Franklin Graham, the evangelical leader turned Trump lackey, who spun the alleged attack as a portrait in chivalry: “Well, there wasn’t a crime committed. These are two teenagers and it’s obvious that she said no and he respected it and walked away.”

Hm, yes, pinning her down and covering her mouth and yanking at her clothes is obviously respecting her no and walking away. Unmistakably. Thank god for evangelicals, yeah?

Republicans have repeatedly made clear that, even as they go through the motions of responding to Dr. Blasey’s accusations, they have no intention of letting this nomination get derailed. On Friday, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, spoke at the Values Voter Summit, reassuring evangelical activists that the Senate was going to “plow right through” and, “In the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court.” Similarly, late Wednesday night, Mike Davis, a top Republican staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted, “Unfazed and determined. We will confirm Judge Kavanaugh.”

Which is pretty stunning if you think about it. They can’t know he didn’t do it, they have no good reason (bro loyalty doesn’t count as a good reason) to assume he didn’t do it, so clearly they don’t care whether he did it or not, they’re going to put him on the court to make sure women are forced to stay pregnant against their wills no matter what.