President Donald Trump expressed sympathy on Tuesday, September 18, 2018 for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation has been disrupted by allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in high school.
“This is not a man that deserves this,” Trump said Tuesday during a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House. “I feel so badly for him that he’s going through this.”
The president criticized Democrats for not having released the accusations earlier, even though they knew about them for months. He took aim at Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who didn’t tell Kavanaugh in a private meeting during the confirmation process that she had a letter detailing the allegations.
“It should’ve been brought up long ago,” Trump said. “You don’t wait until the hearing is over and then all of a sudden bring it up.”
The woman who made the accusation, Christine Blasey Ford, has said she is willing to testify under oath that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while both of them were in high school. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
Ford asked for anonymity when she initially made the allegations in the letter but then agreed to be identified in an article published Sunday by The Washington Post.
White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement Monday that Kavanaugh was willing to testify to “clear his name of this false allegation” as soon as Tuesday, if the Judiciary Committee is ready to hear him.
“Hopefully, the woman will come forward, state her case,” Trump said Tuesday. “He will state his case, before representatives of the United States Senate. And then they will vote.”
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