President Trump thinks that the Senate Judiciary Committee should continue with the Kavanaugh hearing. The committee has been working to schedule a public hearing for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who’s accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault decades ago when they were both in high school. Trump said in an interview with Fox that it’s not possible to delay the confirmation any longer. The president said that the process had already been delayed for a full week adding that he won’t accept any further delays moving forward.
Trump made these remarks during a rally in Las Vegas where he was trying to boost support for incumbent Republican Senator Dean Heller who will be facing a very stiff challenge to retain his seat in the upcoming midterms.
Ford has been negotiating through her lawyers with the Senate Judiciary Committee to set some ground rules ahead of the hearing. The California-based psychologist has already said that she’s ready to testify if certain conditions are met. Some reports are indicating that the hearing could be held as early as Thursday next week. In addition to this, Ford said that she’s not willing to testify in the same room with Kavanaugh. Instead, she would prefer to go first or after the Supreme Court nominee. Brett Kavanaugh has also said that he’s ready to face the committee and defend himself.
Trump has revamped his efforts to campaign for GOP candidates. So far, the president has focused most of his efforts on states where he enjoys significant support and districts where he won during the 2016 election. However, Nevada is different because it went to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Many strategists believe that the best play for Trump would be to try to rally Republican voters in the state to come out and vote for Heller. Republican strategists think that retaining Nevada will be close to impossible if the turnout by the GOP base in the state is low in the midterms. Recent public polls have shown that the Senate race in Nevada remains very close. Heller will be going up against Democrat Jacky Rosen.
Trump’s relationship with Dean Heller didn’t start off that well. Heller was one of the few Republicans in the Senate who joined hands with Democrats to shoot down the Obamacare repeal proposed by the White House. This rocky relationship was also highlighted by Trump during the campaign. Trump said in a rally that even though he and Heller were never friends to begin with, their relationship has improved steadily over the last few months.
There’s no doubt that Trump’s popularity among Republican voters is quite high at the moment. All the candidates the President has backed in GOP primaries have all sailed through. In light of this, this might not be the right time to go up against him, especially in a Senate race like the one in Nevada where it can go either way. Many analysts believe that Heller’s support for Trump is pragmatic for the time being.
