President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeatedly expressed sympathy for Brett Kavanaugh, his nominee to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, whose nomination is in turmoil after a woman came forward with allegations of sexual assault against him this week.
Still, he restated his wishes to see the process to hear the accusations made against Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford, while criticizing Democrats, namely Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), for not publicizing the incident when Ford had written to them over the summer. (Feinstein has since defended her decision not to publicize Ford’s letter out of respect for Ford’s strong request for confidentiality.) “He is at a level that we rarely see, not only in government but anywhere in life,” Trump said at the White House. “Honestly, I feel terribly for him, his wife—who is an incredible, lovely woman—and his beautiful young daughters. I feel terribly for them.”
“Why didn’t the Democrats bring it up then? Because they obstruct and because they resist,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Polish President Duda Andrzej. “That’s the name of their campaign against me. They just resist. And they just obstruct.”
Trump did not appear to be open to the FBI investigating the matter, however, claiming that bureau officials had told him that they do not handle such matters.
The remarks came moments after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) urged for Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn. “He has raised serious doubts about his credibility, his testimony already, he’s been evasive and seemingly misleading,” Blumenthal told reporters. “And the bar here is not whether you have not criminally assaulted someone, it’s credibility, trust, and integrity.”
