WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump has a message for Senate Democrats and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's accuser about an upcoming hearing to discuss the sexual assault allegations against the judge: "Get on with it."
"I don't think you can delay it a little longer," Trump said of that session during a Thursday interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. "I have been accommodating," he added, saying that Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, should be allowed to speak to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"Let's see how it all comes out," he said in Las Vegas before a rally. "They've delayed it a week and they have to get on with it."
Ford, now a California professor, has said Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and groped her during a 1982 party when they were high school students; he again denied the charges in a Thursday letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley.
The judiciary panel has been working with Ford's lawyers about a hearing for both to state their cases. They had planned a Monday hearing, but the accuser's camp wants that session held next Thursday at the earliest as negotiations continue about the format and date of that highly anticipated hearing.
Trump and Senate Republicans are eager to either hold the hearing or move to a committee vote that would set up a floor vote. Both are expected now to fall along party lines, but Republicans have enough seats to narrowly make Kavanaugh the ninth high court justice.
Trump spoke to Hannity live on air at the Las Vegas Convention Center before the campaign rally for several GOP House and Senate candidates. It marked the latest time this week he has catered to conservative media outlets.
On Tuesday, Trump called on reporters from two conservative media outlets _ One America News and Fox News Radio _ during a joint press conference at the White House with his Polish counterpart. The same day, he conducted a friendly interview with Hill.TV in which he again slammed Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Hannity, notably, is perhaps his biggest defender on television, and certainly in the weeknight prime-time hours.
