Donald Trump says three women who have claimed sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh, now a Supreme Court Justice, are pursuing a “hoax” which is “fabricated”.

Trump said the women — Christine Blasey, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick — were part of a plot by Democrats, “using the Democrats’ lawyers”, which now wants to impeach the newly-confirmed justice.

He provided no evidence for the allegation.

After Christine Blasey Ford came forward in mid-September to recount an attempted rape in 1982, saying she is “100%” certain that the attacker was Kavanaugh, Trump implied she was lying. However, after Ford’s compelling testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 27, Trump briefly towed the political line that she was “credible” even as he maintained that Kavanaugh was an “incredible” — in the sense of highly-qualified, rather than lacking credibility — candidate.

But, as Senate Republicans rushed to save Kavanaugh’s nomination last week, Trump shifted again and mocked Ford at a rally in Mississippi, distorting her account to accuse her of false testimony.

TrumpWatch, Day 621: Trump Mocks Christine Blasey Ford

Later, at Kavanaugh’s televised swearing-in ceremony — staged because the justice had already been sworn in on Saturday, just after a 50-48 Senate vote — Trump began with the falsehood that the judge had been “proven innocent”. In fact, the White House sharply curbed a five-day FBI investigation — forced on it and Senate Republicans by a wavering GOP senator, Jeff Flake — ensuring that Kavanaugh, two of the three accusers, and dozens of possible corroborating witnesses were not interviewed.

VideoCast: The Stage Play for Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation

Trump then set aside the women for his portrayal of Kavanaugh as victim: “I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain you have been forced to endure…[in] a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception”.

The new justice — who said in his September 27 testimony to the Judiciary Committee that he was facing a plot by Democrats, the media, and “the Clintons” and who pointed to payback — used a speech at the ceremony to assert that the Supreme Court “is not a partisan or political institution” and that he took office “with gratitude and no bitterness…to be a force for stability and unity”.

But Kavanaugh again then risked crossing partisan lines with his thanks to Republican Senators and White House lawyer Don McGahn, who oversaw the process for his confirmation.

Trump: Kavanaugh’s Critics Are “Evil”

Trump and the GOP are trying to use the Kavanaugh episode as a platform to portray their opponents as an extremist “mob”, hoping this is a winning message for upcoming Congressional elections.

VideoCasts: From A Partial Supreme Court to Trump’s “Enemy Mob”

Trump told reporters before flying to Florida early Monday: “I think you’re going to see a lot of things happen on November 6 that would not have happened before. The American public has seen this charade, has seen this dishonesty by the Democrats.”

He continued, “I think a lot of Democrats are going to vote Republican….The main base of the Democrats has shifted so far left, that we’ll end up being Venezuela.”

In a speech to police chiefs in Orlando, he repeated his denigration of the sexual assault survivors and Democrats as liars and “evil”:

It was very unfair what happened to him. False charges, false accusations. Horrible statements that were totally untrue. It was a disgraceful situation brought about by people who are evil. And he toughed it out. We all toughed it out together.