President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at a news conference in New York on Sept. 26, 2018. (Photo: Screen capture/C-SPAN)

(CNSNews.com) - President Trump defended his Supreme Court nominee at a news conference on Wednesday, and he said he'll be watching when Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said it's possible his mind could be changed.



Trump also criticized Senate Republicans for delaying the hearing "for weeks," and he blasted Senate Democrats for pulling "a big, fat con job."



"When I look at what's happened to the reputation of a great gentleman -- a great intellect, a brilliant man, somebody that has a chance to be one of our great Supreme Court justices in history -- intellectually, I think it's a shame," Trump said.





Speaking of Senate Democrats, Trump said, "What they've done to this family, what they've done to these children -- these beautiful children of his, and what they've done to his wife. And they know it's a big, fat con job. And they go in to a room, and I guarantee you, they laugh like hell on what they pulled off on you and on the public, they laugh like hell.



"So it wouldn't have mattered if the FBI came back with the cleanest score, and you understand that very well, John. If they would have come back with a most perfect -- we found everything and he's perfectly innocent of everything -- it wouldn't have made a difference; you wouldn't have gotten one (Democrat) vote."



Trump said he plans to watch as much of today's hearing as he can, and he said if he thought Kavanaugh was "guilty of something," then he would withdraw his nomination.



"I'm going to see what happens tomorrow," Trump said. "I'm going to be watching. You know, believe it or not I'm going to see what's said. It's possible that they will be convincing. Now with all of that being said, Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been for many years, one of the most respected people in Washington. He's been on, I guess you'd call it the second highest court. And every single person knows him, a lot of people know him well, and those people don't believe what's going on. I can always be convinced. I have to hear it."



Trump said if even he nominated George Washington, Democrats would reject him.





"Look, if we brought George Washington here and we said, we have George Washington, the Democrats would vote against him. Just so you understand. And he may have had a bad past. Who knows, you know? He may have had some, I think, accusations made. Didn't he have a couple things in his past? George Washington would be voted against 100 percent by Schumer and the con artists. I mean, 100 percent, 100 percent. So it really doesn't matter from their standpoint."



Trump said he wishes the hearing could have happened sooner. "We could have heard from her last week," Trump said about Ford.



A reporter tried to ask Trump how his "personal experiences" of being accused by more than a dozen women of sexual impropriety has affected his view of the Kavanaugh accuser, but before she could finish her question, Trump jumped in:



"I've been accused. And I was accused by -- I believe it was four women....who got paid. Excuse me. Excuse me. I was accused by four or five women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me. We caught them and the mainstream media refused to put it on television. They refused to even write about it. There were four women, and maybe more. I think the number's four or five.



"But one had her mortgage paid off her house, $52,000. Another one had other things happen. And the one that reported it I believe was offered $750,000 to say bad things about me."



(Trump went on and on about the "false statements," his accusers, and media coverage of it.)



Eventually, Trump said he's worried that qualified people will refuse his nominations because of the way Kavanaugh is being treated: He called it a "horrible precedent."



"I don't want to be in a position where people say, no thanks, no thanks, I don't want it; you know, I spoke to somebody 38 years ago, and it may not be good. We have a country to run. We want the best talent in the world. But I'll tell you this, the people that have complained to me about it the most about what's happening are women. Women are very angry," the president said.



"Women are so angry, and I, frankly, think that -- I think they like what the Republicans are doing, but I think they would have like to have seen it go a lot faster. But give them their day in court. Let her have her day in court. Let somebody else have a day in court. But the ones that I find -- I mean, I have men that don't like it, but I have women that are incensed at what's going on. I've always said women are smarter than men. I've said that a lot, and I mean it. But women -- women are incensed at what's going on."