Donald Trump Jr. evidently spent Thursday watching Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, while tweeting and re-tweeting comments questioning her credibility and her allegations that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Not joining in Trump Jr.’s criticism of Blasey Ford was Kimberly Guilfoyle, his current partner in love and politics. The former Fox News pundit didn’t add her voice to her boyfriend’s skepticism about the Palo Alto University professor’s allegations.
In fact, during one of the most highly anticipated and politically contentious congressional hearings of modern time, Guilfoyle mostly maintained social media silence.
That continued to be the case, even after Trump Jr. incited fierce backlash over a tweet in which he slammed Blasey Ford for acknowledging Thursday that she had a fear of flying. During her testimony, Blasey Ford explained how this fear added to her reluctance to come to Washington, D.C., to testify, but she also said she has always been able to overcome her anxiety enough to fly for work, family trips and vacations.
Trump Jr. tweeted: “I’m no psychology professor but it does seem weird to me that someone could have a selective fear of flying. Can’t do it to testify but for vacation, well it’s not a problem at all.”
Trump Jr.’s tweet prompted more than 22,000 replies, many critical and many playing on his “I’m no psychology professor” line. Respondents used that line to accuse Trump Jr. of insensitivity and blast him for his various controversies involving, among other things, the Russia investigation, his father’s presidency and his love of big-game hunting.
You ARE no psychology professor, so you have no standing to discuss. PERIOD. Humanity and empathy seem weird to you, so this seeming weird isn’t out of the realm of reality.
Don’t you have an endangered species to exterminate on your vacation?
— Finjerk AKA David Dennison ?? (@finjerk) September 27, 2018
Meanwhile, Guilfoyle on Thursday posted a celebratory photo on a subject pretty remote — geographically and otherwise — from the contentious Blasey Ford/Kavanaugh hearing.
Guilfoyle, the former first lady of San Francisco and ex-wife of the Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, re-tweeted a photo that showed her and Trump Jr. touting a successful fundraiser Wednesday in Nevada for Danny Tarkanian, a Republican congressional candidate.
Very successful fundraiser last night w/ a great group of #TeamTark & #AmericaFirst supporters! We exceeded our fundraising goal by double! My sincere thanks to @DonaldJTrumpJr and @KimGuilfoyle for supporting my #nv03 race and rallying our winning team!! https://t.co/Gm4KDSALYEpic.twitter.com/ercR8Nl3ZR
— Danny Tarkanian (@DannyTarkanian) September 27, 2018
After leaving Fox News in late July, Guilfoyle became vice chair for the pro-Trump super Pac America First Action and has been campaigning for candidates like Tarkanian, son of the legendary college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, running in the midterm elections.
During their appearance for Tarkanian, Trump Jr. touted his father’s work since taking office, while Guilfoyle praised the president for his claim of “draining the swamp,” according to the Nevada Independent.
In many ways, Guilfoyle’s pro-Tarkanian and pro-America First retweet Thursday was in keeping with how she generally uses her Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Guilfoyle uses social media to promote her America First messages and to share posts about what she sees as President Trump’s successes on the economy or foreign policy. She tends to maintain a polite, civil public persona — unlike her boyfriend, who regularly engages in Twitter fights and controversies while evidently trying to follow in his father’s provocateur footsteps.
Nearly as often as President Trump, Trump Jr. is criticized for posting or retweeting comments that are seen as bizarre, tone-deaf, ill-informed or even dishonest and offensive.
Trump Jr.’s belligerent social media behavior has been going on at least since his father began campaigning for president. It came up in reports in March as a contributing factor in his divorce from Vanessa Trump. Around that time, Trump Jr. liked a tweet linking antidepressants to mass murder, and another pair of tweets questioning the motives of a teen survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Trump Jr. jumped in to support Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and then to defend him once his confirmation hit a roadblock over Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations.
Trump Jr. first sparked a Kavanaugh-related Twitter controversy last week after responding to Blasey Ford’s claim in the Washington Post that the judge attempted to rape her at a party when they were teenagers. Trump Jr. mocked Blasey Ford by jokingly comparing the alleged attack to a high school boy hoping a classmate would be his girlfriend.
Senator Jeff Flake was among those expressing disgust. “This is sickening,” the Arizona Republican wrote on Twitter. “No one should make light of this situation.”
This is sickening. No one should make light of this situation. pic.twitter.com/G7rlT3IKTQ
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) September 19, 2018
Trump Jr. further mocked Blasey Ford late last week after her fear of flying was mentioned in reports in Politico and in other outlets. He tweeted:
A professor of psychology that has a fear of flying that she can’t overcome for something this serious? Perhaps, but seems odd to me. I wonder how many times she’s flown in the past decade? https://t.co/WlNxXUHOqu
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 21, 2018
Since Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. officially became a couple in early July, she has retweeted some — but not all — of his Twitter posts. For example, she last week retweeted a link to Trump Jr.’s op-ed in the Denver Post calling Democrats “the party of lawlessness and anarchy.”
Opinion: Democrats are now the party of lawlessness and anarchy, writes Donald Trump Jr. https://t.co/CxyxThujZt via @denverpost
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 21, 2018
When it comes to Kavanaugh, Guilfoyle has shared positive comments about the judge coming from President Trump, or tweeted a link to a story about the president’s anger at Democrats for “working hard to destroy” his nominee’s reputation.
Trump Rips Attacks on Kavanaugh, Reminds Voters of Midterms https://t.co/U9MCU69A3E#Newsmax via @Newsmax
— Kimberly Guilfoyle (@kimguilfoyle) September 25, 2018
But on Thursday, Guilfoyle didn’t retweet anything from Trump Jr., including his praise of Kavanaugh’s “tone” during his testimony — which to critics was a mixture of tears, partisan fury and aggression, especially to female senators, that called into question his temperament and suitability for the Supreme Court.
But to Trump Jr. it was “nice to see a conservative man fight for his honor and his family” against a “political hit job by the Dems.”
I love Kavanaugh’s tone. It’s nice to see a conservative man fight for his honor and his family against a 35 year old claim with ZERO evidence and lots of holes that amounts to nothing more than a political hit job by the Dems.
Others in the GOP should take notice!
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 27, 2018
In general, Guilfoyle hasn’t publicly shared her boyfriend’s more scathing commentary about Blasey Ford, the Kavanaugh confirmation process or anything else.
In late June, when Guilfoyle was still at Fox News, she was called upon to offer her opinion on the increasingly divisive rhetoric in American public life.
Appearing on her former show “The Five” on June 26 Guilfoyle agreed with her co-panelists that the country was spiraling into “dangerous times” with so much incendiary rhetoric coming from both the right and left. She then urged everyone to “accept their own personal responsibility for their discourse, their rhetoric, their conduct, including the President of the United States.”
In another segment, Guilfoyle said, “I’m for reciprocal civility. Full stop.”
Reciprocal Civility. Full Stop. ?? https://t.co/hk0NjOtYpw
— Kimberly Guilfoyle (@kimguilfoyle) June 30, 2018
And even though she was sharing her views on the Trump-friendly Fox News, Guilfoyle mentioned the president as someone who could work on improving his civility.
But does Guilfoyle think her boyfriend could do the same?
It’s possible she thinks Trump Jr. is doing exactly what he needs to be doing to appeal to his father’s MAGA base.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Guilfoyle gushed about Trump Jr. as a boyfriend, saying, “I love him so much.” As for him being her ideal political partner, Guilfoyle told the Breitbart News Daily podcast in July that Trump Jr. “has a compelling political voice” that allows him to connect with his father’s MAGA supporters.
“He actually puts the time in and the effort to understand the base, because he is the base,” Guilfoyle said.
