Ari Fleischer finds media's Kavanaugh coverage lacking: ‘They want the Republicans to lose’

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, left, isn’t getting fair coverage, according to ex-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.

Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer thinks Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh isn’t getting a fair shake because most members of the mainstream media have an agenda:“They want the Republicans to lose.”

Fleischer – who worked with Kavanaugh during George W Bush’s administration -- realizes that the press and conservatives clashing is nothing new, but he told Fox News it’s been turned up a notch since last week's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which a California professor named Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

“The mainstream media has rushed to turn over every dirty rock, stone and pebble they can think of that might put Judge Kavanaugh in a negative light while they downplayed, or ignored, the numerous discrepancies in Professor Ford’s account,” Fleischer said. “They’ve basically given her a pass.”

Fleischer said that Kavanaugh has been put through “unreasonable, severe scrutiny” by the media. The stories have run the gamut from what the teenage Kavanaugh  wrote in his high school yearbook to what kind of keg parties he threw at the beach.

Meanwhile, President Trump has been accused of mocking Ford during a rally in Mississippi on Tuesday night. The president referenced holes in Ford’s story, re-creating the back-and-forth between Ford and her interviewers during last week’s congressional hearing.

"'How did you get home?' 'I don't remember.' '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,'" Trump said as his audience cheered.

Fleischer said that half of Americans heard Trump and considered it a good point, while the other half condemns the rhetoric. But the latter portion includes “most of the media.” Though  critics of the president have accused him of crossing a line, Fleischer thinks it was just Trump being Trump.

“I think Trump walked up to a line and that’s why people are so uncomfortable. For many, it was mocking. For other, I think its Trump’s normal, blunt, direct style,” Fleischer said. “But what Trump did that the mainstream media did not do was ask relevant questions and point out important discrepancies.”

The former White House press secretary said he doesn’t understand why the mainstream media hasn’t asked specific questions: “Who invited you to the party? Who was your connection? Did you ask that person for a ride? When you left the party, did you try to tell that person to leave with you? Did you talk to that person after the party?”

Fleischer said an entire progression of natural questions that should have been explored after the hearing has been ignored; instead, the media turned its attention to Kavanaugh – including deep dives into his social life back in the 1980s.

Last week, For said she had never helped anyone prepare for a polygraph examination, a statement an ex-boyfriend calls inaccurate. While a friend of Ford denied the ex-boyfriend's claim on Wednesday, Fleischer feels the lack of coverage is an example of the bias that exists within the mainstream media.

“If somebody has come out with a blatant, factual contradiction of what Judge Kavanaugh said … it would likely would have been a unique headline on the front page of The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and it would have led the network news,” Fleischer said.

Despite a barrage on sexual harassment-related scandals making news in recent memory, Fleischer doesn’t think public pressure to side with Ford is a result of the #MeToo movement.

“It’s decades long and it's ideological. The press has a preferred outcome in these 'he said, she said' fights,” he said. “They want the Republicans to lose.”

Fox News’ Alex Pappas contributed to this report.