One White House official said Sunday that no new television appearances were currently planned for Kavanaugh, but that “anything to further his case will be done with senators and with the FBI” and that the possibility of appearances later in the week had not been ruled out.

Friends, meanwhile, said they were encouraging Kavanaugh — whom one described as “shell-shocked” by the crisis engulfing his nomination fight — to continue playing offense, the way he did in his testimony on Thursday.

“I’d want people to see me this week,” one Republican close to the process said of Kavanaugh, noting that the aggressive stance he took last week as he faced off against Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee was at odds with his typically unemotional personality — but was responsible for his still having any fighting chance of confirmation.