President Donald Trump announced Monday he wants a “full process” to explore the sexual assault allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The president made the announcement during a White House event:
Trump: "Judge Kavanaugh is one of the finest people that I've ever known," says Kavanaugh has "never had even a little blemish on his record." Then adds: "with all of it being said, we want to go through a full process." (via Bloomberg) pic.twitter.com/DsUTNm9DaW
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 17, 2018
The remarks from Trump, who remains supportive of Kavanaugh, come just days after the federal judge was accused by Christine Blasey Ford of sexually assaulting her when she was just 17 years old. She claimed Kavanaugh was heavily intoxicated at the time of the alleged incident.
Woman Accusing Brett Kavanaugh of Sexual Assault Breaks Silence, Reveals Her Identity
Ford’s husband, Russell, told The Washington Post that his wife recalled during couple’s therapy in 2012 that Kavanaugh once “pinned her to the bed” and proceeded to molest her.
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” Ford, now 51 years old, recalled to the Post. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”
In his statement, Trump said the details of Ford’s claims against his high court nominee “should have been brought up long before,” though he’s confident it will “work out very well.”
He went on to argue Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, should have brought up her concerns about Kavanaugh in her one-on-one meeting with him, because the senators “had the information in July, as I understand it.”
“Judge Kavanaugh spent quite a bit of time with Sen. Feinstein, and it wasn’t even brought up at that meeting, and she had this information,” he said. “So you would have thought certainly that she would have brought it up at the meeting — not wait ’til everything’s finished and then have to start a process all over again.”
Trump concluded by praising Republican lawmakers for handling Kavanaugh’s nominating process “very, very professionally.”