Trump says Senate will do 'whatever it thinks necessary' over FBI investigation into Kavanaugh
'I’m going to let the Senate handle that. They will make their decisions,' president says
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has said that the Senate will “whatever it thinks is necessary” over an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination and push it forward to a full Senate vote, in an 11-10 decision along party lines with all Democrats voting no.
However, the committee was stunned by a request by Republican Senator Jeff Flake for a delay to the full vote of “no more than a week” to allow the FBI to investigation the allegations against Mr Kavanaugh. Mr Flake said he would back advancing to the full vote as long as time was given for the investigation.
“I’m going to let the Senate handle that. They will make their decisions,” Mr Trump said of the idea of the investigation. “They’ll do a good job. I’m just hearing a little bit about it... Whatever they think is necessary they will do.”
Republican leadership are currently deciding whether to allow the delay to the final vote in order to allow space for the possible FBI investigation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee vote came a day after one of Mr Kavanaugh’s accusers, Dr Christine Blasey Ford, gave testimony to the committee over her allegation that Mr Kavanaugh tried to force himself upon her at a party they both attended in high school.
“Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes... I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help,” she said.
“When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me,” she added.
Mr Kavanugh denied the allegations in his own testimony and said his family had been “destroyed” by them. Mr Kavanaugh faces sexual misconduct allegations from two other women, which is also denies.
Talking about the testimony, Mr Trump called Dr Ford “a very fine woman” before a meeting at the White House with the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera.
“I thought her testimony was very compelling and she looks like a very fine woman to me, very fine woman,” Trump said.
“And I thought that Brett’s testimony likewise was really something that I hadn’t seen before. It was an incredible moment I think in the history of our country. But certainly she was a very credible witness.”
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