Below is what Brett Kavanaugh’s supporters are saying right now about the allegation by Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her when he was in high school. None of it looks good for Kavanaugh.

— Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a close friend of Kavanaugh, after deleting a long Twitter thread conjecturing that a Kavanaugh classmate might have been the perpetrator instead:

I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Prep classmate. I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake.

— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) September 21, 2018

After Whelan posted the thread Thursday evening, Ford issued a statement saying “I knew them both, and socialized with [the other classmate]…. There is zero chance that I would confuse them.”

— Mark Judge, Kavanaugh classmate whom Dr. Ford alleges was in the room during the assault, in a letter from his lawyer to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA):

Ford has urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to question Judge, as have several Democratic senators, but Judge’s refusal to answer questions is backed by Senate Republicans, including Grassley, who has invited only Kavanaugh and Ford to testify, and Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who declared that Judge “already said what he’s gonna say.” Judge, who has written in the past about his abuse of alcohol in his prep school years, also has deleted or concealed his social media profiles in recent days.

Refusing to answer questions in this circumstance suggests that you don’t want your account to be, um, questioned.

— Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader (R-KY):

Mitch McConnell: “You’ve watched the fight. You’ve watched the tactics, But here’s what I want to tell you: In the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court… Don’t get rattled by all of this. We’re gonna plow right through it and do our job.” pic.twitter.com/nmVJVHvrVV

— CNN (@CNN) September 21, 2018

There are many plows on farms in the home state of McConnell, as well as that of Grassley. But it was not a good choice of words, and nor was it appropriate to dismiss Dr. Ford’s information as essentially worthless before she has testified.

Donald J. Trump, President of the United States:

I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018

Trump had held his tongue for a few days, and stated that the Judiciary Committee should hear from Dr. Ford. But with this comment, he declared that “the attack” must not have been so “bad,” or else the victim would have filed charges, thus not only impugning Dr. Ford (and also, in fact, Judge Kavanaugh) but also implying a broader attack on the credibility of victims of sexual assault.

With friends like these, it’s not clear that Kavanaugh needs enemies to defeat his nomination.