This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump has disparaged one of two women to accuse Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, saying she “has nothing” on his supreme court nominee and was “messed up” when the alleged incident took place, as he accused Democrats of running a “con game” to stop the nomination.

Trump, seated next to the Colombian president at the United Nations in New York, cast doubt on allegations brought by Deborah Ramirez, who claimed that she was harassed by Kavanaugh when they were first-year students at Yale.

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“The second accuser has nothing,” Trump said. “The second accuser thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not. She admits she was drunk. She admits time lapses.”

“She was totally inebriated and all messed up and she doesn’t know,” he continued, adding sarcastically: “Gee, let’s not make him a supreme court judge.”

In Washington, the Senate judiciary committee scheduled a vote on his nomination for Friday morning, just one day after the panel will hear public testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford about her claim that he sexually assaulted her when they were in high school.

Kavanaugh has vigorously denied the allegations. “I had never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not ever,” he said in an interview with Fox News.

Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called it “outrageous” to schedule a vote before hearing from Ford.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chuck Schumer said it was ‘galling’ for Mitch McConnell to blame Democrats for playing partisan games when he has done ‘more than maybe anyone to politicize the supreme court nomination process’. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

“First Republicans demanded Dr Blasey Ford testify immediately. Now Republicans don’t even need to hear her before they move ahead with a vote,” she said. “It’s clear to me that Republicans don’t want this to be a fair process.”

The committee chairman, Chuck Grassley, insisted that scheduling the vote was only a precautionary measure in the event that members were prepared to move forward on Friday.

“Still taking this 1 step at a time,” he wrote on Twitter. “After [hearing] Dr Ford & Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony – if we’re ready to vote, we will vote. If we aren’t ready, we won’t.”

The move sets the stage for a vote in the full Senate sometime next week and comes as Republicans increasingly express confidence that Kavanaugh will be confirmed.

'I'm not going anywhere': Kavanaugh defends himself on Fox News Read more

In a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, promised a swift vote after Thursday’s hearing, arguing that “vague, unsubstantiated and uncorroborated allegations of 30-plus-year-old misconduct” were “nowhere near grounds to nullify someone’s career or destroy their good name”.

He also continued his attacks on Democrats, accusing them of failing to afford Kavanaugh any “presumption of innocence” in their effort to keep him off the court.

Speaking after McConnell, the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said the Kentucky Republican should “apologize immediately” to Ford for calling her allegations against the judge part of a “smear” job led by Democrats. He said it was “galling” for McConnell to blame Democrats for playing partisan games with the accusations when he has done “more than maybe anyone to politicize the supreme court nomination process”.

“Don’t they want the truth?” Schumer asked of Republicans.

On Tuesday afternoon, Schumer reiterated Democrats’ demand for an FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh.

The Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski, seen as a crucial Republican swing vote, appeared to agree. Asked if the FBI should reopen its background investigation into the judge, she told reporters: “Well, it would sure clear up all the questions, wouldn’t it?”

Senate Republicans hardened their defense of Kavanaugh even as they sought to assure Ford that she would receive “fair and respectful” treatment when she testifies on Thursday. McConnell announced on Tuesday that Republicans had hired an unnamed female attorney to handle questioning during the hearing, with Democrats saying the move was inconsistent with the GOP pledge to avoid a “circus”.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the committee, said rejecting Kavanaugh’s nomination on the basis of Ford’s allegation alone would send a strong signal to future supreme court nominees.

Play Video 1:47 White House suggests ‘left wing conspiracy’ as third Kavanaugh allegation set to emerge – video

“If this is enough – 35 years in the past, no specifics about location and time, no corroboration – God help the next batch of nominees that come forward,” he told reporters. “It’s going to be hard to recruit good people if you go down based on allegations that are old and unverified.”

But Kavanaugh’s fate rests with a handful of Republican senators: Murkowski, Susan Collins of Maine and Jeff Flake of Arizona. Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate.

Collins and Murkowski, who are not on the Senate committee, told reporters this week that they would wait for the hearing to make up their mind. Flake, who is retiring, was among the first to call for delaying a committee vote to hear from Ford.

Conservative women uneasy with Kavanaugh in wake of sexual assault claims Read more

Ford has alleged that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party more than three decades ago, when he was 17 and she was 15, saying he put his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming as he attempted rape. Ford reluctantly came forward after pieces of her account began leaking to the press and she later agreed to appear before the Senate committee.

There is no plan yet for Ramirez, the second accuser, to testify before the panel. In an interview with the New Yorker magazine, Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of thrusting his genitals in her face at a drunken dorm party during the 1983-84 academic calendar.

Earlier on Tuesday, the White House indicated that it was open to the idea of hearing testimony from Ramirez at that hearing before the Senate judiciary committee.

“Certainly we would be open to that, and that process could take place on Thursday,” Sanders said during an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America. “The president has been clear, let them speak.”

A third woman is expected to step forward with new allegations this week.