(CN) - President Donald Trump said Monday he wants "to go through a full process" in regard to Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school.
Nevertheless, he continued to back his Supreme Court nominee as "as high a quality individual as you'll ever see."
“He’s an outstanding intellect. An outstanding judge. Respected by everybody. Never even had a little blemish on his record," Trump said before an unrelated White House event on Monday. "The FBI has I think gone through a process six times with him over the years where he went to higher and higher positions. He is somebody very special.
"At the same time, we want to go through a process," the president continued. "We want to make sure everything is perfect, everything is just right. I wish the Democrats could have done this a lot sooner, because they had this information for many months. And they shouldn’t have waited til literally the last days. They should have done it a lot sooner."
Trump said he has "great confidence" in the U.S. Senate and that "they’ll go through a process and hear everybody out. I think it’s important.
"I believe they think it’s important," he said. But again, [Kavanaugh] is one of the great intellects and one of the finest people that anybody has known. You look at his references – I’ve never seen anything quite like it."
When asked if Kavanaugh had offered to withdraw, the president said it was a "ridiculous question." He said he had not spoken to Kavanaugh about the allegation.
"I think he’s very much on track," Trump said. "If they delay a little bit just to make sure everybody’s happy – they want to be happy. I can tell you the Republican senators want to be a hundred percent happy themselves. They’re doing it very, very professionally. Again, this should have been brought up a long time ago.”
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