Trump says he wants 'full process' on allegation against Kavanaugh

President Donald Trump said Monday he was open to a "full process" to air Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school, but he called his Supreme Court nominee "as high a quality individual as you'll ever see."

"We want to go through a full process," Trump said during a White House event. He added that he thought the allegations, which leaked anonymously last week before Ford came forward Sunday, "should have been brought up long before" and said he was sure it would "work out very well."


“They had the information in July, as I understand it," Trump said of Democrats. "That's a long time ago."

He said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, should have brought up her concerns during her one-on-one meeting with the nominee, if not in public.

"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 said the nomination was still on track: "I think he’s very much on track. If they delay a little bit just to make sure everybody’s happy — they want to be happy. I can tell you the Republican senators want to be 100 percent happy themselves. They’re doing it very, very professionally. "

When asked if Kavanaugh had offered to withdraw, the president said it was a "ridiculous question." He said he had not spoken to Kavanaugh about the allegation.

