MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough said on Wednesday that coverage of misconduct accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been "one-sided" and "biased."
"The media coverage of this has been so one-sided, it's been so biased," he said. "There's been this presumption from the beginning that every allegation made against the judge was true."
Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women. One of those women, Christine Blasey Ford, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday that in the 1980s Kavanaugh held her down on a bed, groped her, and attempted to take her clothes off. Kavanaugh has denied all accusations of sexual misconduct made against him.
Scarborough said he and co-host Mika Brezezinski found Ford "very persuasive" but noted voters who they spoke with recently expressed doubts.
"Over the weekend," Scarborough said,"we were at different events and were surprised that it was a pox on both their houses. You had people attacking Judge Kavanaugh, saying he wasn't temperamentally fit to be a judge, they were attacking the Republicans. But the part that you don't really see in the media that much, they were also attacking the Democratic senators, and quite a few people that we talked to, who I think a lot of them were registered Democrats, raised questions about Dr. Ford's story."
Those in the media who do raise doubts are not always treated with kindness, Scarborough said.
"In 24/7 news coverage ... they won't talk about it," he said. "If anyone sticks their neck out and says that they disbelieve any part of her story or they talk about how there are no corroborating witnesses, they'll get absolutely slammed."
"The media coverage of this has been so one-sided on this story," he said. "It has been so biased."
"I have turned on all networks at all times," he said, "and Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of being a serial rapist – a serial rapist by columnists in national newspapers."
Scarborough said his criticism of the "biased" coverage comes despite the fact he hasn't supported Kavanaugh's confirmation since before the accusations from Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick were revealed.
"Before the allegations, I didn't think he should be on the Supreme Court," Scarborough said.
Questions about Ford's credibility have been renewed since Trump, who has staunchly defended Kavanaugh's nomination, asked at a rally on Tuesday in Mississippi why Ford didn't remember more details about the night she claims Kavanaugh assaulted her.
According to Scarborough, Trump's rhetoric has so inflamed the media because they–and even many Republicans–avoided discussing possible flaws in Ford's story.
"Nobody has dared say, even the Republicans, that part of Dr. Ford's story just might not add up," he said. "You have a complete absence in the mainstream media, you have conservatives saying 'there's no this, there's no that,' so then Donald Trump goes and he says it, and it's like lighting a keg on fire."
He said the media has given Trump "a massive opening because they've bee so one-sided on this story," which allowed him to "light dynamite and blow the whole thing up."
"The media has dropped the ball on this from the very beginning," Scarborough concluded, tying the polls on Kavanaugh to polls about Trump in the 2016 election."They're once again, just like Trump being elected, going to be shocked by what they see in the polls."