WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump offered a robust defense of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday, saying it was "very hard for me to imagine anything happened" with the woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when both were teenagers.
The president's assessment came as it remained uncertain whether Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, would testify at a hearing on Monday.
Ford has said she wants the FBI to investigate her allegation before she will testify. Democrats support that, but Trump and Senate Republicans have said that it won't happen.
Leaving the White House to survey flood damage in North Carolina from Hurricane Florence, Trump conceded that "we'll have to make a decision" if Ford's account proves convincing.
"I can only say this: He is such an outstanding man. Very hard for me to imagine that anything happened," Trump said.
Kavanaugh's path to approval was interrupted last week when word of Ford's allegation became public, but GOP senators are showing no signs of slowing their drive to confirm him as quickly as possible.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to Ford's attorneys that the hearing was still scheduled for Monday morning, and he said she must submit her written statement by 10 a.m. Friday "if she intends to testify" that day.
Lisa Banks, a lawyer for Ford, released a statement late Tuesday that cast no light on whether her client will appear.
She wrote that Ford wants "a full non-partisan investigation" and said Ford is willing to cooperate. But she said Grassley's plan to call just Kavanaugh and Ford "is not a fair or good faith investigation" and said "multiple witnesses" -- whom she didn't name -- should appear.
"The rush to a hearing is unnecessary, and contrary to the Committee discovering the truth," Banks wrote.
Ford has contended that at a house party in the 1980s, a drunken Kavanaugh tried to undress her, stifling her cries on a bed before she fled. Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied that claim.
The FBI on Wednesday continued to hold its public position that it had included information about the allegations in Kavanaugh's background file, and that it is now up to the White House to decide what to do with it.
Several Republicans say they want to give Ford, now a professor at Palo Alto University in California, every chance to tell her story.
Grassley told reporters that he was reaching out again to Ford on Wednesday to make clear she could testify publicly or privately.
"Where I'm focused right now is doing everything we can to make Dr. Ford comfortable with coming before our committee," Grassley said.
He left open the possibility that the hearing could occur with only Kavanaugh present.
"We don't have any problem with Kavanaugh coming, the only problem we have with making it a fruitful hearing is to hear from both sides," he said.
"After learning of the allegation, Chairman Chuck Grassley took immediate action to ensure both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh have the opportunity to be heard, in public or private," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said on Twitter late Tuesday.
"Republicans extended a hand in good faith. If we don't hear from both sides on Monday, let's vote," said Corker, who had publicly urged the Senate to hit pause until lawmakers heard from Ford.
Moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she hoped Ford would reconsider a decision not to testify and "it's not fair to Judge Kavanaugh" if she refuses. "Otherwise, there are these very serious allegations hanging over the head of a nominee who has emphatically denied them," she said on WVOM radio in Bangor.
Going further, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Democrats' demands for an FBI investigation were a ploy to delay a confirmation vote. "It is imperative the Judiciary Committee move forward on the Kavanaugh nomination and a committee vote be taken as soon as possible," the committee member said in a statement.
Trump said senators have been patient with Ford and that he hopes she will testify Monday.
"If she shows up, that would be wonderful. If she doesn't show up, that would be unfortunate," Trump said.
As for a possible FBI intervention, Grassley said in the letter to Ford's lawyers, "We have no power to commandeer an Executive Branch agency into conducting our due diligence."
In a separate letter to Democrats, Grassley wrote that committee aides were "even willing to fly to California, or anywhere else, to meet her." He also wrote that GOP aides tried to arrange interviews with two other "alleged witnesses." The letter mentioned no names and committee staff declined to name them.
Only the White House can order the FBI to get involved, since Kavanaugh is not accused of a federal crime. The FBI could interview Ford, Kavanaugh and others about the allegation if Trump asked the bureau to reopen its background investigation, but the president has said the FBI has finished its work.
Ford and her Democratic allies also want the committee to interview Mark Judge, a Kavanaugh friend who Ford has said was in the bedroom during the attack. Judge has said he doesn't remember the incident, never saw Kavanaugh act that way and has no desire to testify publicly.
"Dr. Blasey Ford is calling for an impartial FBI investigation of her serious and credible allegations. Meanwhile Republicans are trying to bully her into a rigged hearing before a neutral investigation and without the only identified eyewitness," No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin of Illinois tweeted.
Another high school friend, Patrick Smyth, who was identified as also being at the party Ford described but not in the room at the time of the alleged assault, said Wednesday that he does not remember anything like it.
"I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh," he said in a letter being sent Wednesday to the Judiciary Committee, according to CNN. He added: "I have never witnessed any improper conduct by Brett Kavanaugh towards women."
A substantial delay in Kavanaugh's confirmation could push it past the November elections, when Democrats have a shot at winning Senate control.
One key Democrat, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, announced Wednesday that she will vote against Kavanaugh, depriving Trump's nominee of a possible swing vote.
McCaskill called the sexual-assault allegations against Kavanaugh troubling, but said she based her decision on the judge's views on issues like presidential power and "dark money" in campaigns. She's the first of five undecided Senate Democrats in competitive re-election races to come out against Kavanaugh.
Republicans control the Senate 51-49 and the Judiciary panel by 11-10, and cannot afford GOP "no" votes.
SUPPORT FOR BOTH SIDES
Separately, more than a dozen women who signed a letter rallying behind Kavanaugh say they stand by their declaration that he "has always treated women with decency and respect."
After word of the allegation against Kavanaugh emerged last week, Meghan McCaleb started the letter-writing effort, contacting friends who contacted more friends, she said. They had 65 signatures by Friday morning.
"Brett wouldn't do that in a million years. I'm totally confident. That would be completely out of character for him," said Paula Duke Ebel. She said she interacted with Kavanaugh hundreds of times while they were students in a close-knit constellation of single-sex Catholic schools around Washington in the 1980s.
Women who organized and signed it say it was a rapid response by a social network that endures decades after they graduated and was easy to mobilize: a chain of friends calling, texting and emailing friends from a Washington-area world where many still live and see one another.
Meanwhile, hundreds of alumnae of the secular private girls school that Kavanaugh's accuser attended have signed a letter supporting her.
"We believe Dr. Blasey Ford," they wrote.
The letter backing Kavanaugh is from women who vouch that they knew the federal appeals court judge personally as a high school student. Several said they got to know him well through sporting events, parties and other socializing or the phone calls that occupied teenage weeknights in the pre-texting era.
One worked with him at a summer camp. A second sought his help with homework. Two dated him. Some still see him at social functions.
McCaleb said "I'm not certain" when asked on Fox News whether she believed Ford, whom she described as a friend of a friend. "She alleges that she had this traumatic event, and I feel like it is not the Brett Kavanaugh that we know."
Sharon Crouch Clark didn't know Ford and feels fine about having signed the letter, notwithstanding the allegation.
"If it happened to her, that's horrible," Clark said. But she questions whether the incident occurred as Ford described it, noting that Ford said she couldn't recall certain details about the date, place and other aspects.
Women who signed the letter said they didn't know about or recall the party Ford described, and they said her account of a "stumbling drunk" Kavanaugh didn't jibe with their memories of a boy who drank some beer alongside them but never lost control or crossed a line with girls.
"He was the kid who always did the right thing," Williams said.
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram, Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville, Padmananda Rama, Jonathan Lemire, Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, Jennifer Peltz, Michael Kunzelman, Dan Sewell, Alanna Durkin Richer and Rhonda Shafner of The Associated Press; by John Wagner, Seung Min Kim and Matt Zapotosky of The Washington Post; and by Peter Baker and Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times.
A Section on 09/20/2018