MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski pointed to an unspoken intent behind Christine Blasey Ford's revelations about Brett Kavanaugh - and her request for an FBI investigation of her sexual assault allegations. She asserted that Republicans are rushing to confirm Kavanaugh because the court's "session is going to start in October and the President wants his guy there to, he hopes, help him evade criminal or civil proceedings".

But Republicans are hoping to win committee and full Senate approval for Mr Kavanaugh this month, before the new Supreme Court session begins, and have shown no taste for slowing that process. Republicans have said the Federal Bureau of Investigation would be doing nothing more than what committee staffers could achieve by interviewing Kavanaugh and Ford.

President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and said he stands by his choice.

"Dr. Ford has asked me to let you know that she appreciates the various options you have suggested", Katz wrote. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!...

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nomination Brett Kavanaugh found himself at the focus of an increasing scandal this week as sexual allegations from his high school days have hit the headlines, adding what some will see as yet just another flaw to the history of the controversial nominee.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Prof Ford says Brett Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and tried to take off her clothes What are the other developments?

Taylor Foy, spokesman for Republicans on the panel, said after the call that Grassley "will consult with his colleagues on the committee".

On Friday, it remained unclear how the hearing would proceed on Kavanaugh. You've watched the fight, you've watched the tactics, but here's what I want to tell you: "In the very near future, judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court". "We're gonna plow right through it and do our job".

According to reports Thursday, the Republicans are considering hiring a female outside litigator to handle the questioning, which would be televised nationally. Trump and other Republicans, cautious of alienating women, had treated Ford carefully while calling for a quick vote.

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, who faces a tough reelection battle in Missouri, which Trump won in the 2016 presidential election, said on Twitter on Wednesday that she would vote against Kavanaugh's confirmation because of "his positions on several key issues, most importantly the avalanche of dark, anonymous money that is crushing our democracy".

"For generations, women have been reluctant or afraid to speak out about their experiences because so often, they have been dismissed, accused of lying, or even attacked", he said.

Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, has been given a Friday deadline by the Republican-led Judiciary Committee to decide whether to testify at a high-stakes hearing it has scheduled for Monday.

The accusation has jarred the 53-year-old conservative jurist's prospects for winning confirmation, which until Ford's emergence last week had seemed all but certain.

"Facts don't matter. I go through this with them every single day in D.C.", Trump said.

That question of fairness is at the heart of a bitterly partisan debate over how to deal with the allegation that Kavanaugh drunkenly assaulted Ford at a party when he was 17, she was 15, and they were attending private schools outside Washington, DC.

"Since the moment I first heard the allegation", he said in a statement on Thursday, "I have categorically and unequivocally denied it". Ford initially sent the top Democrat on the panel, Sen.

Ford's lawyers said on Tuesday she would testify before the committee only if the FBI first investigated her allegation.

If Senate Republicans push through the nomination, those surveyed predict significant political repercussions.