President Donald Trump said that it’s a “scary time” for young men in America since they can face sexual assault allegations even when they may be innocent. 
 
 Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding a flight Tuesday, Trump said that the political climate in America today makes it hard to refute allegations, referencing claims of sexual misconduct by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 
 
 “It is a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of,” he told reporters. “This is a very difficult time. What’s happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice. You can be somebody that was perfect your entire life and somebody can accuse you of something. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a woman. But somebody can accuse you of something.” 
 
 Trump said that the current situation meant that some men are “guilty until proven innocent.” 
 
 Asked if he had a message for young women, Trump said it’s a “great time for women.” 
 
 California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford testified to Congress last week that as a teenager Kavanaugh held her down, put his hand over her mouth and tried to remove her clothes. A second woman, Deborah Ramirez, said that as a college student he exposed himself to her during a party. A third woman, Julie Swetnick, alleges that she was gang raped at a party that Kavanaugh attended. 
 
 Kavanaugh denies all of the allegations. 
 
 During the 2016 campaign, Trump faced allegations of sexual misconduct from 18 women ranging from walking through women’s dressing rooms to unwanted kissing to touching their genitals without their consent. Trump denied all the allegations, calling the women “horrible, horrible liars.” He’s currently facing a defamation lawsuit from one of the women, former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos. 
 
 The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also said in an interview this week that he’s “scared most” for his sons, rather than his daughters. ||||| Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he believes the reaction to the allegations of sexual assault and other misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh makes it "a very scary time for young men in America." 
 
 "It is a very scary time for young men in America, where you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of," Trump said. "This is a very, very -- this is a very difficult time. What's happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice." 
 
 The allegations against Kavanaugh -- including sexual assault and exposing himself to a young woman in college -- have sparked the latest reckoning in America about sexual assault and men's treatment of women, bringing the #MeToo movement back to the fore. And while Trump has called Christine Blasey Ford, who testified to Congress that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school, "credible" and "compelling," he has continued to support Kavanaugh's confirmation and emphatically defend his character. 
 
 Trump's comments on Tuesday were just the latest instance of the President expressing concern about the public outcry resulting from the allegations against Kavanaugh and the impact on other men. 
 
 "It's a very scary situation where you're guilty until proven innocent. My whole life I've heard you're innocent until proven guilty, but now you're guilty until proven innocent. That is a very, very difficult standard," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. "You could be somebody that was perfect your entire life and somebody could accuse you of something." 
 
 Read More ||||| President Trump Donald John TrumpGiuliani says he confirmed Trump ‘never’ spoke with Cohen about congressional testimony Russian pop star linked to Trump Tower meeting cancels US tour Harris after announcing presidential run says her 'highest priority' is protecting Mueller probe MORE said Tuesday the controversy surrounding Brett Kavaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court shows it is a “scary time for young men.” 
 
 "It is a very scary time for young men in America, when you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn before leaving the White House. 
 
 Trump said Kavanaugh has been treated unfairly as multiple women have come forward to accuse the federal judge of sexual misconduct. The FBI is investigating the allegations, delaying a Senate confirmation vote. 
 
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 "It's a very scary situation where you're guilty until proven innocent," the president said. "That is a very, very difficult standard." 
 
 Trump's comments are likely to fuel the firestorm surrounding Kavanaugh's nomination and renew questions about his attitude toward the "Me Too" movement. 
 
 Nineteen women have accused the president of sexual misconduct or said they’ve had an extramarital affair with him. Trump has denied all of the allegations. 
 
 Asked if he had a message for young women, Trump replied, “Women are doing great.” 
 
 The president said he hopes for a “positive” vote in the Senate this week for Kavanaugh, but it will "be dependent on what comes back from the FBI.” 
 
 The sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh stem from his time in high school and college in the 1980s. 
 
 His first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, delivered dramatic testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which she said Kavanaugh pinned her down and tried to rip off her clothes while drunk at a house party with other high school students. 
 
 Kavanaugh forcefully denied the allegations during his own testimony, which pleased Trump and his other Republican supporters. 
 
 Two other women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct while drinking excessively during his years in high school and college. 
 
 The president warned Democrats that they risk turning Kavanaugh into a martyr on the right if they block his nomination, a move he said would energize conservatives ahead of the midterm elections. 
 
 "They are so in favor of Judge Kavanaugh. It’s like a rallying cry for the Republicans," Trump said. 
 
 But several GOP senators, led by Sen. Jeff Flake Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeSchumer recruiting top-notch candidate for McCain Senate seat The Hill's Morning Report — Trump eyes wall money options as shutdown hits 21 days Poll: Sanders most popular senator, Flake least MORE (Ariz.), are withholding their support for Kavanaugh until the FBI investigation concludes. 
 
 The White House agreed to allow the FBI expand its investigation after senators accused the administration of limiting it too narrowly, according to reports on Monday. 
 
 Several key senators have indicated they would be uncomfortable voting for Kavanaugh if the inquiry was seen as perfunctory. 
 
 But top Republicans have said they plan to move ahead with Kavanaugh's confirmation vote this week, wary a further delay could possibly derail his nomination. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellDACA recipient claims Trump is holding ‘immigrant youth hostage’ amid quest for wall Former House Republican: Trump will lose the presidency if he backs away from border security Pence quotes MLK in pitch for Trump's immigration proposal MORE (R-Ky.) mocked a new story about the judge getting into a bar fight during his years at Yale University and reaffirmed his plans to hold a vote this week. 
 
 "Senators will have the opportunity to vote. We’ll have the opportunity to vote 'no' on the politics of personal destruction. We’ll have the opportunity to vote 'yes' on this fine nominee," McConnell said on the Senate floor. ||||| President Trump mocked the account of a woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of assault and told a Mississippi crowd that the #MeToo movement was unfairly hurting men. 
 
 Trump, in a riff that has been dreaded by White House and Senate aides, attacked the story of Christine Blasey Ford at length — drawing laughs from the crowd. The remarks were his strongest attacks yet of her testimony. 
 
 “ ‘I don’t know. 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,’ ” Trump said of Ford, as he impersonated her on stage. 
 
 “I don’t remember,” he said repeatedly, apparently mocking her testimony. 
 
 Ford has said the incident happened in an upstairs room and that she is “100 percent” certain it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her, although she has acknowledged that her memories of other details of the evening remain unclear. 
 
 Trump then told the crowd that men were going to be fired from their jobs after being unfairly accused of sexual harassment. Trump himself has been accused of harassment by many women and has been caught on tape bragging about groping women. 
 
 “Think of your husbands. Think of your sons,” Trump told the crowd. 
 
 He said that Kavanaugh’s life was “in tatters” and urged the crowd to think about his family. And in an apparent swipe at all of Kavanaugh’s accusers, he declared: “These are really evil people.” 
 
 In a tweet after the rally, Michael Bromwich, an attorney for Ford, called Trump’s remarks “a vicious, vile and soulless attack” on his client. 
 
 “Is it any wonder that she was terrified to come forward, and that other sexual assault survivors are as well? She is a remarkable profile in courage. He is a profile in cowardice,” Bromwich said. 
 
 Trump made the remarks at a freewheeling rally that comes as the FBI investigates allegations that the Supreme Court nominee sexually assaulted female students while in high school and college. 
 
 In her testimony last week, Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago when they were both teenagers. Kavanaugh has angrily denied the allegations. 
 
 Trump had previously refrained from attacking Ford personally, although he sent a tweet last month in which he questioned why Ford or her parents had not “immediately” filed charges with local law enforcement after the alleged incident. 
 
 Tuesday’s attack could further inflame tensions in the pitched battle over Kavanaugh’s confirmation — and alienate moderate key votes like Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). 
 
 Trump had no words of comfort for women like Ford who say they were attacked, raped or sexually assaulted. 
 
 Trump’s aides have repeatedly urged him not to take on Ford, saying there is no benefit. 
 
 Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the Kavanaugh drama, aides say, and sees it as key to the midterms. 
 
 The president lavished praise on Kavanaugh at the rally, and the crowd responded with similar enthusiasm, breaking out into chants of, “We want Kavanaugh! We want Kavanaugh!” 
 
 But Trump also seemed to distance himself from his own nominee, even as he told the crowd he needed their support to get him through. 
 
 “I don’t even know him. I met him for the first time a few weeks ago. It’s not like I want to protect my friend,” Trump said. 
 
 Speaking for more than an hour, Trump touched on several of his favorite topics, including his new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, the crowd size at his events and the state of the economy. 
 
 He also mocked Democrats as acting “holier than thou” and focused on several potential 2020 presidential contenders by name, including former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). At one point, he also appeared to suggest that one Senate Democrat drinks too much, offering no proof for his attacks but urging the crowd to Google the senator’s name. 
 
 Trump was visiting Mississippi to rally support for Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) ahead of the November election. Hyde-Smith, the state’s first female senator, was appointed to succeed longtime Sen. Thad Cochran (R), who resigned in April amid health concerns. She faces three opponents in the nonpartisan special election for the remaining two years of Cochran’s term: Republican Chris McDaniel and Democrats Mike Espy and Tobey Bartee. 
 
 Espy, if elected, would become the first black senator to represent Mississippi since shortly after the Civil War. 
 
 Trump threw his support behind Hyde-Smith in August, declaring in a tweet that she had helped him “put America First!” If no candidate earns more than 50 percent of the vote on Nov. 6, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff on Nov. 27. 
 
 The rally was Trump’s second of four this week, part of a final campaign push with a little over one month to go until the midterms. He heads to Minnesota on Thursday and Kansas on Saturday. 
 
 Earlier Tuesday night, the New York Times published a bombshell report detailing how Trump received hundreds of millions of dollars from his father’s real estate empire, undercutting the image Trump has long crafted of himself as a self-made man. Much of the money was funneled by Fred Trump to his children through the use of shell companies and other schemes that allowed him to avoid paying taxes on it, the Times reported. 
 
 Trump made no mention of the story during the rally. But the event’s start was slightly delayed until just after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement pushing back on the article and suggesting that the newspaper should apologize for its reporting. 
 
 “Fred Trump has been gone for nearly twenty years and it’s sad to witness this misleading attack against the Trump family by the failing New York Times. Many decades ago the IRS reviewed and signed off on these transactions,” Sanders said in the statement, which did not cite any specifics of the report. 
 
 The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance said Tuesday evening that it is reviewing the allegations in the article and “vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation.” 
 
 Sonmez reported from Washington.
– As President Trump exited the White House for a flight Tuesday, he spoke with reporters on the South Lawn about the topic you'd expect: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the allegations against him. Some standout lines, per Time, the AP, and the Hill: "You can be an exemplary person for 35 years and then somebody comes and they say 'you did this or that,' and they give three witnesses, and the three witnesses at this point do not corroborate what she was saying. It's a very scary situation where you're guilty until proven innocent. ... That is a very, very difficult standard." "It is a very scary time for young men in America, when you can be guilty of something you're not guilty of." "What's happening here has much more to do than even the appointment of a Supreme Court justice. ... You could be somebody that was perfect your entire life, and somebody could accuse you of something. Doesn't necessarily have to be a woman ... but somebody could accuse you of something and you're automatically guilty, but in this realm you are truly guilty until proven innocent. That's one of the very, very bad things that's taking place right now." As for what kind of a time it is for women, "Women are doing great," he replied when asked if he had a message for them. CNN sees parallels between Trump's statements and comments Donald Trump Jr. made in a Monday interview with the Daily Mail in which he said that, in light of the Kavanaugh allegations, he is more afraid for his sons. "I mean, right now, I'd say my sons. I've got boys, and I've got girls. And when I see what's going on right now, it's scary."