Kevin Cramer spent his weekend buried under an avalanche of bad press after he told a North Dakota radio station that the assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh was “absurd” because Kavanaugh and Dr. Blasey were drunk teenagers, and the alleged rape attempt “never went anywhere.”
While most Republican Senate candidates have been careful in their continued support of Kavanaugh, Cramer went out of his way to underscore his disdain for the accusation. Asked to clarify his comments, he doubled down, saying “The point of my answer was that the current allegations were even more absurd” than those made by Anita Hill against Clarence Thomas, because, “At the time, there was a sense of legitimacy to what Anita Hill was saying.”
Cramer’s comments were highlighted across North Dakota TV this weekend — and several stations caught up with him at local events.
Watch KMCY on Cramer here. Watch KXMC highlight Cramer’s remarks here. Watch KVRR interview Cramer here.
And here’s what North Dakotans were reading this weekend:
By Andrew Kaczynski and Christopher Massie | September 21, 2018
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“North Dakota GOP Senate nominee Kevin Cramer said on Friday that the accusation against Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh was ‘even more absurd’ than Anita Hill’s accusation against Clarence Thomas because Kavanaugh and his accuser were drunk teenagers when the alleged incident occurred.”
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“Cramer added that Ford’s allegations were less legitimate than Hill’s in part because the assault she describes ‘never went anywhere.’”
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“‘If to the degree there was any legitimacy to Anita Hill’s claims, and she tried and didn’t prevail — Clarence Thomas did and America did — this case is even more absurd because these people were teenagers when this supposed alleged incident took place,’ Cramer said on the Jarrod Thomas Show on 1310 KNOX, a local North Dakota radio station. ‘Teenagers. Not a boss-supervisor-subordinate situation, as the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill situation was claimed to be. These are teenagers who evidently were drunk, according to her own statement. They were drunk. Nothing evidently happened in it all, even by her own accusation. Again, it was supposedly an attempt or something that never went anywhere.’”
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“Cramer, who is running for US Senate against Democratic incumbent Heidi Heitkamp, said in a statement to CNN, ‘The question I was answering was how the current accusation against Brett Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford compared to the Anita Hill accusation against Clarence Thomas. The point of my answer was that the current allegations were even more absurd.’”
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“Cramer later added that he feared that such accusations would prevent ‘good people’ from seeking high office…‘It’s going to get very difficult to get good people to do these jobs if this is going to be the standard if you have to have a perfect record in junior high and high school.’”
Read the full story here.
And more: The Daily Beast, Political Wire, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, The Hill, Alternet, Huffington Post, Mother Jones, High Plains Reader, New York Times, New York Times (again), Bismarck Tribune, LA Times, AP, NBC News, Washington Post, York Dispatch.
Published: Sep 24, 2018