White House aides said they persuaded the president to refrain from tweeting a defense of Kavanaugh in the accusation’s immediate aftermath and deliberately worked to keep him from meeting personally with the nominee, even though the two men spent most of the day in proximity.
Kavanaugh was hunkered down in the West Wing office of White House Counsel Donald McGahn, strategizing to save his nomination and calling senators to deny the claim against him…
The situation is so fragile that Republican officials said they fear that any impulsive statement by the president could have negative ramifications — for himself, for Kavanaugh or for the GOP overall.
Trump’s advisers calmed him by giving him space to vent privately about Senate Democrats, whom Republicans accuse of improperly withholding the sexual assault allegation until now, officials said. Trump, who spoke Sunday with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), concluded that the confirmation process should continue to be mostly handled by senators and was content trusting them with it, as he had for Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s successful nomination last year, they said.
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