Kavanaugh was born for US Supreme Court: Trump

US President Donald Trump has said Brett Kavanaugh was born to be one of the judges on the Supreme Court.

"He was born for the US Supreme Court — and it's going to happen,” Trump told a crowd during a Friday night campaign rally in Springfield, Mo.

Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual misconduct by California professor Christine Blasey Ford.

Ford claims that the judge sexually assaulted her back in the 80s.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee has given Ford until Saturday afternoon to testify.

If Ford fails to testify by then, the panel will vote on Monday whether to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote, according to Republican chairman Chuck Grassley.

The panel postponed the vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation after Ford disclosed the allegation of assault last week.

Since then, Fords’s lawyers and Senate staff have been negotiating the conditions of her testimony.

Trump’s 'appalling'remarks 

On Friday, Trump sought to cast doubt on Ford's allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 when both were high school students in Maryland.

He made an effort to discredit her by tweeting she should have reported it.

"I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents," Trump said. "I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!

"Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don’t want to know the answers, they just want to destroy and delay," Trump wrote.

Republican Senator Susan Collins said she was "appalled" by Trump's tweet.

"We know allegations of sexual assault are one of the most unreported crimes that exist," Collins said,  according to the Portland Press Herald. "So I thought that the president’s tweet was completely inappropriate and wrong."

"The most powerful man in the world just used his position and platform to attack a sexual assault survivor," Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said on Twitter. "This is the same man who has been credibly accused of more than a dozen cases of sexual assault or harassment."

The Republican-controlled Senate judiciary panel has struggled on how to proceed with Kavanaugh's nomination.

The Senate panel must approve Kavanaugh's confirmation before a vote by the full Senate, where Republicans hold a 51-49 majority.

Kavanaugh's confirmation to the lifetime position would be the second judge appointed by Trump and solidify conservative control of the nation's top court, tilting the judiciary farther to the right.

Democrats have demanded more time for scrutiny, and Republicans want to move ahead quickly with a confirmation vote in an increasingly volatile political climate ahead of congressional elections on Nov. 6.

If the hearing proceeds, Republicans will be forced to walk a careful line in questioning Ford's account without alienating women voters ahead of the elections. Before the 2016 presidential election, more than a dozen women accused Trump of making unwanted advances.

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Earlier in the night, Grassley said on Twitter that he had granted the extension to Ford after a 10 pm (0200 GMT Saturday) deadline he set to reach a deal with Ford's lawyers had passed.

"Judge Kavanaugh I just granted another extension to Dr. Ford to decide if she wants to proceed (with) the statement she made last week to testify to the Senate," Grassley wrote on Twitter.

Grassley had said earlier that the panel would hold a vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation on Monday.

In an email to judiciary committee staff, Ford's lawyer Debra Katz called the deadline "aggressive and artificial."

"Your cavalier treatment of a sexual assault survivor who has been doing her best to cooperate with the Committee is completely inappropriate," Katz added.

Ford's legal team has said Ford strongly prefers that her allegations were fully investigated before she testified.

Her team also sought guarantees for Ford's safety because of death threats.

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