Trump Sides With Kavanaugh, Accusing Democrats of Timing Assault Charge to Delay Confirmation

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump falsely charged on Tuesday that Democrats had sought to time a sexual assault allegation against his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, to obstruct his confirmation, siding with the judge as he called for a swift process for airing the accusation on Capitol Hill.

“I feel so badly for him that he’s going through this,” Trump said of Kavanaugh, who has been accused by Christine Blasey Ford, a research psychiatrist, of attempted rape at a party in Washington in the 1980s, when both were teenagers. “This is not a man that deserves this.”

Kavanaugh has flatly denied the charge.

The president attacked Democrats for not having raised the accusation earlier in the confirmation process, when they first learned of it over the summer, arguing that they had deliberately withheld the information to harm him.

“Why didn’t the Democrats bring it up then?” Trump said Tuesday during a news conference at the White House with President Andrzej Duda of Poland. “Because they obstruct, and because they resist. That’s the name of their campaign against me — they just resist and they just obstruct.”

“It’s a shame,” he added, “because this is a great gentleman.”

In casting doubt on the timing of Blasey’s accusation, Trump, himself the subject of sexual misconduct allegations that he has denied, mischaracterized Democrats’ role. They took their cue from Blasey, who was not willing to go public with her accusation until this past weekend.

She contacted a reporter this year about the episode and detailed it in July in a confidential letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering Kavanaugh’s nomination. Blasey had initially asked to remain anonymous, until she came forward this past weekend in an interview published in The Washington Post.

Trump, who has been uncharacteristically restrained about the matter in his public statements and on Twitter, said he felt “terribly” for Kavanaugh and did not address his feelings about the alleged victim, Blasey, to whom he referred as “the woman.” He said senators should hear out both parties and then go forward with a vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

“They will look at his career, they will look at what she had to say — from 36 years ago — and you will see what happens,” Trump said.

Earlier, Trump told reporters he wanted the hearing on Kavanaugh to proceed “as quickly as possible,” praising the judge as “a truly outstanding person” with an “unblemished record” who would make an “incredible” justice on the nation’s highest court.

Trump said that Kavanaugh was “anxious” to testify publicly about the allegations, which he has flatly denied.

Blasey’s revelation has sent what had appeared to be a surefire confirmation for Kavanaugh careening off track. Bowing to pressure from senators in their own party, Republican leaders postponed a Thursday vote to confirm the judge, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, announced that the panel would hear from both Kavanaugh and Blasey on Monday in what promises to be an extraordinary public session. (She uses the surname Blasey professionally, though news accounts have also referred to her by her married name, Ford.)

“I don’t know about the other party, but Judge Kavanaugh is anxious to do it, and a delay is certainly acceptable,” Trump said in the Oval Office earlier Tuesday as he met with Duda. “We want to get to the bottom of everything. We want everybody to be able to speak up and speak out.” Republicans, who are facing voters in midterm elections in less than two months, are eager to keep Kavanaugh’s nomination on track and avoid delays that could harm his chances at confirmation. But they have not always been in a rush to confirm Supreme Court nominees: They stonewalled Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia, in 2016, denying him a hearing or a vote for eight months and insisting that the winner of the presidential election be allowed to choose a nominee instead. Trump selected Neil M. Gorsuch early last year.

On Tuesday, Trump said he had deliberately avoided speaking with Kavanaugh about the accusations against him, knowing he would be asked about it by reporters.

“He can handle himself better than anybody; he’s a very outstanding man,” Trump said. “I’m totally supportive.”

Kavanaugh huddled with aides at the White House on Tuesday for the second consecutive day, preparing for questions from senators about details of the accusations and any drinking and partying he did as a teenager, according to people familiar with the process. White House officials were bracing for a hearing in which they feared Democrats would seek to tarnish Kavanaugh and Republicans would be on the defensive, wary of seeming to attack a survivor of sexual assault but eager to protect their nominee.

Aides have successfully lobbied Trump to refrain from tweeting attacks on Blasey or dismissing her allegations, reminding him that a vital seat on the country’s highest court is at stake. On Tuesday, however, he signaled his patience may be wearing thin.

Asked by a reporter whether the accusations were “just politics,” Trump said: “I don’t want to say that. Maybe I’ll say that in a couple of days, but I don’t want to say that now.”