White House defends Trump’s mocking of Kavanaugh accuser, says he was 'stating facts'

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Trump appears to mock Ford's testimony during campaign rally

The White House on Wednesday said President Trump was “stating facts” when he mocked Christine Blasey Ford for an alleged lack of detail in her allegation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh -- and accused Democrats of exploiting Ford for political purposes.

Trump ripped into Ford at a rally Tuesday night in Mississippi, claiming that the only thing in her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee she could remember that she only had "one beer" at the high school party in the 1980s at which she said she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh.

"How did you get home? 'I don't remember,'" Trump said, imitating a back-and-forth with Ford. "How did you get there? 'I don't remember,' Where is the place? 'I don't remember,' How many years ago was it? 'I don't know. I don't know.' "What neighborhood was it in? I don't know. Where's the house? I don't know. Upstairs, downstairs -- where was it? I don't know -- but I had one beer. That's the only thing I remember.'"

While the remark was met with laughter and applause from supporters, both Republicans and Democrats slammed Trump for the remarks, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, calling it reprehensible, “beneath the office of the presidency, and beneath common decency from one person to another.”

The remarks also threatened to derail the delicate Senate math Republicans are facing to get Kavanaugh confirmed. With a slim majority in the Senate, Republicans can afford few defections, and the remarks outraged some of the swing-vote Republicans on whose vote Kavanaugh’s confirmation rests.

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“The president’s remarks were just plain wrong," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters Wednesday. She declined to say if it would affect her vote.

But at the White House daily briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump was just stating the facts, and alleged it was proof that Ford could not be criticized, while it was open season on Kavanaugh.

“The president was stating the facts and frankly facts that were included in special prosecutor Rachel Mitchell's report, he was stating facts that were given during Dr. Ford’s testimony,” she said.

“Every single word Judge Kavanaugh has said has been picked apart, every single word, second by second of his testimony has been picked apart but if anyone says anything about the accusations that have been thrown against them, that’s completely off-limits and outrageous," she said. "This entire process has been a disgrace."

She also blasted Democrats for allegedly hurting both Kavanaugh and Ford by “circumventing the entire system” in their approach to the accusations.

They’ve destroyed Judge Kavanaugh’s reputation, undermined Ford’s privacy and tried to upend our traditions of innocent until proven guilty in the process,” she said.

"I think both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh are victims at the hands of the Democrats," she said. "I think it is absolutely disgraceful what they've done and exploited this process. They've exploited Dr. Ford, they're exploiting all of the women that have come out to make any type of accusation. This isn't the process that should've been done and certainly everybody deserves to be heard-- but that includes Judge Kavanaugh."

Fox News’ Kristin Fisher contributed to this report.