Kavanaugh news: Three Key Republicans criticize Trump’s comments about Christine Blasey Ford

At a political rally in Mississippi Tuesday night, President Trump mocked a woman who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party while they both were in high school.

The comments have prompted criticism from senators expected to be key swing votes on Kavanaugh's nomination.

"I had one beer! How did you get home? 'I don't remember,'" Trump said, mocking Christine Blasey Ford's recollection of events to laughter from the large crowd gathered in Southaven, Miss. "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. I don't know.'"

"Upstairs, downstairs where was it? I don't know," Trump added.

Ford told the Judiciary Committee that she was assaulted in an upstairs bedroom by Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge. Ford alleged that Kavanaugh pinned her on the bed, attempted to remove her clothes, and covered her mouth when she attempted to scream. "I thought he was going to accidentally kill me," Ford said of Kavanaugh, citing his inebriated state.

Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations of Ford and two other women — Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick.

The comments marked a dramatic reversal for Trump, who just last week told reporters he thought Ford's testimony was "very compelling" and called her a "very credible witness."

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Three Republican senators considered the only swing votes on Kavanaugh's nomination – Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Jeff Flake of Arizona – all criticized Trump comments.

"I thought the President's comments yesterday mocking Dr. Ford were wholly inappropriate and in my view unacceptable," Murkowski told reporters Wednesday afternoon, adding she's "taking everything into account" when it comes to determining whether she'll vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

Earlier in the day, Collins told reporters that the president's comments about Ford were "just plain wrong."

Flake, who demanded the FBI be given a week to investigate the three women's claims against Kavanaugh, told the Today show he was appalled by Trump's comments about Ford and her testimony.

"There's no time and no place for remarks like that. But to discuss something this sensitive at a political rally is just not right…It's kind of appalling," Flake said, standing next to his colleague, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.

Here are other recent developments:

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, giving her first press briefing in nearly a month, claimed President Trump was "stating the facts" when he mocked Ford during his rally Thursday night and suggested the media wasn't being fair to Kavanaugh.

"Ever single word Judge Kavanaugh has been picked apart – every single word, second by second of his testimony – has been picked apart," Sanders said. "Yet if anybody says anything about the accusations that have been thrown against him, that's totally off-limits and outrageous."

Sanders was also asked about the scope of the FBI's investigation, refusing to deny a Bloomberg report that the FBI lacks White House approval to question either Kavanaugh or Ford.

"Both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford were questions in the most public way possible by the members of the Senate," Sanders said. "If they had additional questions for either one of them, they had a time and an opportunity certainly to ask those."

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has been one of Kavanaugh's most outspoken defenders, said he thought Trump's Supreme Court nominee had been "treated like crap."

"I'm the first person to say, 'I want to hear from Dr. Ford.' I thought she was treated respectfully. I thought Kavanaugh was treated like crap," Graham said to boos during an interview at The Atlantic's Media Ideas Festival.

Despite his support of Kavanaugh, Graham said Trump was wrong to mock Ford's testimony during his rally Tuesday night.

"I don't like what the president said last night," Graham said.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway defended Trump's comments mocking Ford's testimony to reporters Wednesday morning, telling reporters Ford's allegations of having been sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh have yet to be corroborated.

"She's been treated like a Fabergé egg by all of us, beginning with me and the president," Conway said. "He's pointing out factual inconsistencies. Do you have corroboration for her claims? Excuse me, can you fill in her memory gaps or her factual inconsistencies?"

Conway, who told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that "credible and compelling are words that many of us have used to describe" Ford's testimony,  didn't specify what inconsistencies she was referring to.

Conway also warned moderate Democratic senators, like West Virginia's Joe Manchin and Indiana's Joe Donnelly, that if they vote against Kavanaugh's nomination, they'd be "complicit in a process that is trying to destroy a man and that revealed the identity of a woman who wanted to remain anonymous."

Monica McLean, a friend of Ford, denied ever being coached by Ford on how to take a polygraph test.

"I have never had Christine Blasey Ford, or anybody else, prepare me, or provide any other type of assistance whatsoever in connection with any polygraph exam I have taken at anytime," McLean said in a statement released by Ford's legal team.

The claim Ford coached McLean on how to take a polygraph test came from a man who claimed to be Ford's former boyfriend. The man, whose name was redacted in a declaration first obtained by Fox News, claimed Ford helped McLean, who had been interviewing for jobs with the FBI and a U.S. Attorney's office, prepare for a potential polygraph test.

During her testimony before the senate Judiciary Committee, Ford denied ever giving tips or advice to anyone looking to take a polygraph test.

Michael Proctor and Mark Osler, two former Yale classmates of Kavanaugh, withdrew their endorsements of his Supreme Court nomination due to his testimony last week.

>> READ MORE: Have young men's attitudes toward sexual violence changed since Kavanaugh's youth?

"In our view that testimony was partisan, and not judicious, and inconsistent with what we expect from a Justice of the Supreme Court, particularly dealing with a co-equal branch of government," Procter and Osler wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif).

Procter and Osler were among the 27 classmates who wrote a letter backing Kavanaugh's nomination in August. On Monday, three former Kavanaugh clerks who had also previously supported his nomination said in a letter to Grassley and Feinstein they were "deeply troubled" by the allegations he faces.

The New York Times obtained a letter written by Kavanaugh in 1983 that appears to contract claims the Supreme Court nominee made during his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The letter, written ahead of a "beach week" in Ocean City, Md., includes references to drinking and women, and ends with an instruction to warn neighbors "that we're loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us."

Through a lawyer, Kavanaugh confirmed to the Times he had written the letter to organize "Beach Week" in the summer of 1983. Kerri Kupec, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement: "It seems The New York Times is committed to embarrassing Judge Kavanaugh with three-decade-old stories of adolescent drinking."

>> READ MORE: Here's how Brett Kavanaugh could have redeemed himself | Ronnie Polaneczky

The issue of Kavanaugh's past drinking history has become relevant due to comments he made during his testimony, in which he claimed he never blacked out or suffered memory loss from drinking too much. He also claimed that references to vomiting stemmed from his difficulty holding down "spicy food," not excessive drinking.

"I'm known to have a weak stomach, and I always have," Kavanaugh said when asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.), about references to "Beach Week Ralph Club." Kavanaugh largely avoided answering Whitehouse's questions directly, instead pressing the senator on his own drinking habits.

"I like beer. I like beer. I don't know if you do," Kavanaugh shot back.

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