Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) unloaded on Democrats on Monday afternoon over their latest efforts to slam the reputation of sitting Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh — saying in no uncertain terms that this “is not normal political behavior.”

“Senate Democrats [are] reopening the sad and embarrassing chapter that they wrote last September,” McConnell declared.

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He was talking in part about the highly controversial — and subsequently revised — piece in The New York Times over the weekend in which a salacious and uncorroborated allegation against Kavanaugh was presented. The Times also deleted a tweet about the piece and apologized for it.

The allegation concerns sexual misconduct that supposedly occurred decades ago “at a drunken party.” The article by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly was adapted from their forthcoming book.

At the center of this latest salacious allegation is a woman who apparently was not interviewed by The Times authors — and who also said she does even recall the alleged incident in question.

Related: New York Times Revises Its Horribly Sourced Original Story about Brett Kavanaugh

It was a then-fellow Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s who brought up the accusations — a man named Max Stier, who also was part of former President Bill Clinton’s defense team during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

“The book notes, quietly, that the woman Max Stier named as having been supposedly victimized by Kavanaugh and friends denies any memory of the alleged event,” noted Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist in a tweet. “Seems, I don’t know, significant.”

Some of the top 2020 Democrats running for the nomination against President Donald Trump next year used the original Times story to demand Kavanaugh’s impeachment.

McConnell derided what he called a familiar “pattern” in regard to the Kavanaugh allegations: “Shoot first, correct the facts later,” he said, as Fox News also noted.

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Speaking on the floor of the Senate, McConnell said the Democrats are “rushing to exploit” the new accusations and “hysterically” demanding that Kavanaugh be removed from the bench.

He said the Senate was right to confirm Kavanaugh last year — which it did in early October after a bruising and public confirmation battle throughout the late summer of 2018.

McConnell also accused Democrats of again deploying the “politics of personal destruction.”

“It’s just as transparent and self-serving today,” McConnell said.

He criticized “several Senate Democrats for a recent brief that urged the Supreme Court to ‘heal itself’ or face restructuring — which was widely seen as a threat of court-packing,” as Fox News noted.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the Senate Judiciary Committee chair who strongly defended Kavanaugh last year, also said the recent attacks by the Democrats are “beyond the pale.”

“My heart goes out to Justice Kavanaugh’s family for being forced to endure this ridiculous treatment once again,” he tweeted.

Here’s his tweet.

Here is other reaction as well — and some additional information.

See McConnell’s remarks in the video below.

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