WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (all times local):
11:10 a.m.
President Donald Trump says newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was “caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats.”
Trump says allegations of sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh were “all made up, it was fabricated and it’s a disgrace.”
Kavanaugh was accused by several women of sexual misconduct, including a California professor who testified under oath that he tried to assault her at a high school party decades ago. Kavanagh adamantly denied the allegations.
Trump had once said he found her testimony credible.
Trump says he thinks many Democrats will vote Republican in next month’s midterm elections because they’re angry about Kavanaugh’s treatment.
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12:35 a.m.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is leaving the door open to taking up a nomination to the Supreme Court if a seat becomes vacant in the 2020 presidential election season.
The Kentucky Republican made the remark after winning a hard-fought battle to confirm President Donald Trump’s second high-court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
In early 2016, McConnell refused to set hearings for President Barack Obama’s last nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, saying the seat left open by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia should be filled by the winner of that year’s election.
McConnell says an election-year vacancy isn’t filled if the party controlling the Senate is different from the party of the president.
McConnell appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
