"His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting," President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter of his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's testimony. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images White House Trump thrilled at Kavanaugh defiance The president applauds a Trumpian defense from his nominee — but some White House allies are concerned by his accuser's 'credible' performance. 
 
 President Donald Trump and his aides were ebullient Thursday as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh defiantly rejected charges of sexual misconduct — a mood that reflected some relief after Trump officials conceded that his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, offered a compelling performance in the first half of the day. 
 
 Trump and senior officials were impressed by Kavanaugh’s combative defense before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which the Trump nominee, alternating between fury and tears, called several misconduct charges against him a “calculated and orchestrated political hit” and “national disgrace” that had devastated his life and family. 
 
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 Minutes after the committee adjourned Thursday evening, Trump tweeted that his nominee "showed America exactly why I nominated him." 
 
 "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting," Trump wrote. "Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" 
 
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 That capped something of a roller-coaster day for a White House that had watched in the morning as Ford gave a powerful and disturbing account of what she said was a sexual assault by Kavanaugh when the two were high school students at a party in the 1980s. 
 
 "She seems sincere, kind, thoughtful and credible," a former Trump White House official said. "Hard to suggest she is politically motivated." 
 
 Trump, who watched the hearing aboard Air Force One on his flight back to Washington from New York City early in the day, refrained from tweeting until the day’s proceedings had ended shortly before 7:00 p.m. Some of his aides fretted early in the day as Trump watched CNN and Fox News commentary suggesting that Ford’s testimony — and what officials called a disappointing performance by a female prosecutor hired by Judiciary Committee Republicans to question her — might tip the balance against Kavanaugh’s troubled nomination. 
 
 Kavanaugh said he did not share his fiery opening remarks with anyone except a law clerk, and a White House official said his defiant tone when he initially addressed the committee after lunch caught many in the building by surprise. 
 
 But Trump was elated when Kavanaugh, whom he previously complained was not defending himself with enough force, lashed out at Democrats and the media for what Kavanaugh called casual character assassination. 
 
 One senior White House official said Kavanaugh seemed to have tapped into a key element of Trump’s own personal style: hit back hard and without apology. 
 
 “What do you like to drink, Senator?” Kavanaugh angrily asked one questioner, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). 
 
 “I think he’s studied the way people around Donald Trump have been treated and he figured out a way to prevail,” said the official. The official confirmed that Trump had watched and relished Kavanaugh’s combative opening statement, which the official called “superb.” 
 
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 Some of Kavanaugh’s rhetoric also echoed comments of the president at a news conference the day earlier, in which Trump lambasted Democrats for allegedly manufacturing false allegations in what Trump called a “con job.” Both Trump and Kavanaugh also suggested that men accused of sexual misconduct had lost the presumption of innocence, and that higher principles of due process and public service were at stake. 
 
 The senior White House official added that Kavanaugh’s approach also echoed the defiant response of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who survived public charges of sexual harassment that played out during his nationally televised 1991 confirmation hearings. 
 
 It remained unclear by evening whether Kavanaugh’s nomination would survive an astonishing day that covered everything from alleged rape to drinking games, the geography of Bethesda, Maryland, and crass high school yearbook jokes. But the day’s end, the mood in the White House was considerably brighter than it had been earlier, when some officials cringed at the role of Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, who led the GOP side’s questioning of Ford. 
 
 “That’s a disaster,” said one administration official. The official argued that Republican lawmakers had erred by caving to the pressures of identity politics and hiring a woman to quiz Ford to avoid having an all-white male lineup of Republicans question her. 
 
 Trump allies also recognized the bad optics of a prosecutor seeming to interrogate a victim who even some committee Republicans later acknowledged had come across as sympathetic. Mitchell approached Ford with a patient tone, but seemed to be searching for holes in Ford’s story as she asked about her air travel — Ford has said the alleged assault left her claustrophobic and uncomfortable in airplanes — and who paid for and advised her to take a polygraph test. 
 
 Trump allies who want to see Kavanaugh confirmed also were concerned that Mitchell failed to poke any substantial holes in Ford's account or character that would make her story less believable. During her questioning, Mitchell herself acknowledged that the day's format — in which she was able to question Ford in five-minute intervals — was not an ideal way to assess an alleged victim's story. 
 
 But not all White House aides and officials were so unhappy about Ford’s testimony in the first half of the day. One White House official and another person close to the confirmation process noted that, despite emotional responses on TV and via social media to the day's hearing, the key audience is a limited number of Republican senators. They include Jeff Flake, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Those senators have expressed a desire for a no-drama, fair hearing, and the sources said they felt Mitchell was delivering that. 
 
 The two sources also noted that the hearing had failed to produce any new facts that might incriminate Kavanaugh. And midway through the 53-year-old judge’s testimony, he had made no obvious stumbles or admissions of wrongdoing. 
 
 Trump aides were “particularly impressed,” said one of the White House officials, when Kavanaugh told senators that his 10-year-old daughter had recently said at bedtime that she and her sister should pray for Ford. 
 
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 And after Sen. Lindsey Graham launched a dramatic tirade against committee Democrats who he said “want … to destroy this guy’s life,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cheered him on via Twitter. White House aides said they felt Graham had articulated their own anger over the personal charges against Kavanaugh, including Graham’s charge, delivered at a near-shout, that “What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020.” 
 
 At least one conservative legal activist distributed talking points early in the day defending Mitchell and noting Ford conceded to her that she must have been given a ride to and from the party where she says Kavanaugh assaulted her but could not remember who might have done so. “Whoever drove [Ford] home doesn't exist," the activist argued. The talking points also noted that a polygraph test Ford took and passed could be invalid because it was administered around the time of her grandmother’s funeral. The talking points also noted that Mitchell had managed to prove that "there was no witness to support what she's alleging happened.” 
 
 At the day’s outset, Republicans expressed resignation that Kavanaugh had mishandled the situation from the beginning, by trying to portray himself as a choir boy instead of admitting that he drank heavily in high school, college and law school, as multiple classmates and yearbook entries have shown. A better strategy, White House officials conceded, would have been to admit he didn’t remember the assault described by Ford, but that he believed her story and issue her an apology. 
 
 White House officials said they saw his decision to sit for an interview with Fox News on Monday as a mistake. And that a better way to have handled the accusations would have been as Trump did after the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape in October 2016: a quick apology and then a forceful forging ahead. 
 
 “He feels for Brett, the person,” one person familiar with Trump’s thinking said early in the day, noting that Trump sees it as Kavanaugh’s job to defend his own name. 
 
 “When he’s accused, he punches back,” the person said. 
 
 By the day’s end, Kavanaugh had done the same — winning the president’s support, even if his nomination remained in the balance. 
 
 Christopher Cadelago contributed to this report. 
 
 CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Sen. Whitehouse's name. ||||| Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake is one of 11 Republicans on the narrowly divided Senate Judiciary Committee. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Kavanaugh Confirmation Flake opposes quick vote on Kavanaugh, putting confirmation in doubt And Bob Corker urges the vote on the Supreme Court nominee to be postponed. 
 
 Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court hit a serious roadblock Sunday night, as GOP Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake said he is uncomfortable voting to advance Kavanaugh's nomination later this week after the nominee's sexual assault accuser went public. 
 
 Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who is not a member of the committee but whose vote is critical to Kavanaugh's confirmation, similarly said late Sunday that the committee should pause. 
 
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 Flake (R-Ariz.) said he needs to hear more about the allegations raised publicly by Christine Blasey Ford on Sunday in a Washington Post article, and said other Republicans share his view. Flake is one of 11 Republicans on the narrowly divided panel and without his support, the committee cannot advance his nomination. However, GOP leaders could try to bring Kavanaugh‘s nomination directly to the Senate floor. 
 
 "If they push forward without any attempt with hearing what she's had to say, I'm not comfortable voting yes," Flake said. "We need to hear from her. And I don't think I'm alone in this." 
 
 Asked if the committee vote should be delayed to hear out Ford, Corker replied: "I think that would be best for all involved, including the nominee. If she does want to be heard, she should do so promptly." Republicans control just 51 seats in the Senate, so the comments of the two retiring senators are highly consequential. 
 
 Later Sunday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a moderate who had yet to say how she will vote, echoed the notion that the vote might need to be delayed. “If there is real substance to this, it demands a response,” she told CNN. 
 
 Flake declined to address whether Kavanaugh should withdraw his nomination: "I'm not responding to that question at all." The retiring Arizona Republican has long been a thorn in the side of President Donald Trump, refusing to support his campaign in 2016 and often critiquing his policies and rhetoric. In return, Trump has repeatedly mocked Flake. 
 
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 Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is also seeking more information on Ford's account that Kavanaugh groped her, tried to pull off her clothes and covered her mouth when she tried to scream at a party in Maryland more than three decades ago. A spokesman for Grassley said that given the new information about Kavanaugh and Ford revealing her identity after the allegations were first revealed anonymously, "Grassley is actively working to set up ... follow-up calls with Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford ahead of Thursday’s scheduled vote." 
 
 It remains unclear whether Ford wants to appear before the committee or whether Grassley wants her to testify. Flake said he was not sure what forum would be appropriate: "I don't know what she's comfortable with ... we need to hear from her." 
 
 Another Judiciary Committee Republican, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, echoed Flake's view that Ford should be heard by the Senate if she wants to. He did not, however, call for the panel vote to be delayed: “If the committee is to hear from Ms. Ford, it should be done immediately." 
 
 But Democrats on the Judiciary panel promptly signaled their resistance to Grassley's proposal for follow-up conversations, pressing instead for a fuller inquiry into the allegation. "There's a lot of information we don’t know and the FBI should have the time it needs to investigate this new material," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said through a spokesman. "Staff calls aren’t the appropriate way to handle this.” 
 
 Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, an undecided Republican moderate, spoke to Kavanaugh on Friday after the allegations were raised anonymously. She told CNN that Kavanaugh "denied" the allegations and said she was discussing whether the hearing should go forward with her Senate colleagues. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had planned to confirm Kavanaugh before the new session of the Supreme Court on Oct. 1, but a spokesman offered no new timetable on Sunday afternoon. 
 
 Ford wrote a letter to a Democratic congresswoman detailing the incident, which were then passed along to Feinstein and gradually leaked out over the past week. Feinstein said on Sunday afternoon that Ford's allegations "bear heavily on Judge Kavanaugh’s character." She is one of a growing number of Democrats calling on the nomination process to be stopped and a Thursday committee vote to be delayed. 
 
 "To railroad a vote now would be an insult to the women of America and the integrity of the Supreme Court," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). 
 
 Ford told the Post that at the time of the alleged assault she thought Kavanaugh "might inadvertently kill me." 
 
 "He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing," she said. 
 
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 Ford, 51, is a professor at Palo Alto (Calif.) University and she graduated from the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Md., in 1984. (Kavanaugh graduated from Georgetown Prep in 1983.) She told the Washington Post she took a polygraph regarding the incident, which the paper reviewed, and she passed. 
 
 Republicans are now left wondering whether Grassley will move forward with a committee vote this week without hearing testimony from Ford. And it is still unclear if undecided moderates Collins or Murkowski will support Kavanaugh, though GOP leaders have been supremely confident in his confirmation prospects until Sunday. 
 
 Judiciary Committee Republicans sent out a memo criticizing "Democrats' tactics and motives" and calling on Feinstein to release "the letter she received back in July so that everyone can know what she’s known for weeks." And four people close to the White House said they expected Republicans to question the accuser's vague memories and why Feinstein, up for reelection in November with the Democratic base hungry for anti-Trump fodder, sat on the accusation for months. 
 
 Three of those people also said they expect the president to go after Kavanaugh's accuser rather than to turn on the judge. They noted that Trump has done so before, not just denouncing his own accusers but also attacking those of others, notably, failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. 
 
 A lawyer close to the White House said the nomination will not be withdrawn. 
 
 “No way, not even a hint of it,” the lawyer said. “If anything, it’s the opposite. If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried. We can all be accused of something.” 
 
 The White House issued the same statement on Kavanaugh's behalf that it did last week: "I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.” The White House began hearing rumors of the new allegations last week, and White House counsel Don McGahn received a redacted version of the letter Friday and sent it to Capitol Hill, according to a person familiar with the events. 
 
 On Sunday morning before Ford's story emerged, Senate Republicans pledged to move forward with President Donald Trump’s pick, in part because Ford's allegations have been anonymous until now. Just hours before Ford went public, Sen. John N. Kennedy (R-La.) of the Senate Judiciary Committee predicted Kavanaugh will win narrow confirmation. 
 
 “They’ve had this stuff for three months; if they were serious about it, they should have told us about it,” Kennedy said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think every Republican will vote for Judge Kavanaugh. I think at least two, and maybe more, Democrats will” vote for him. 
 
 Kavanaugh needs 50 votes to be approved, meaning GOP leaders are relying on either Murkowski or Collins to break the logjam. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) was just appointed to the Senate to replace the late John McCain, giving the GOP one more pro-Kavanaugh vote. 
 
 Ford had no intention of going public with her accusations and requested them to be confidential. She told the Post that she escaped after Mark Judge, a friend of Kavanaugh's, jumped on top of them. Judge has denied that the incident occurred. 
 
 Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who has not met with Kavanaugh, plans to bring up the claims if he is able to sit down with the nominee this week and said on CNN that his Democratic colleagues should have brought up the matter earlier in the confirmation process, at least in private meetings. 
 
 "These disturbing allegations deserve a thorough vetting and the American people deserve answers. We have to hit pause on this process until we have more information," Jones said on Twitter after Ford went public. 
 
 Jones is among a small group of undecided Democrats, a list that also includes Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. 
 
 Donnelly, Heitkamp and Manchin voted for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch last year. Manchin is requesting a second meeting with Kavanaugh. 
 
 Kavanaugh has passed numerous FBI background checks, but the letter was only added to his file after Feinstein referred it to the Department of Justice. Now, senators will all have access to the letter now that it has been added to background files. 
 
 “I support Mrs. Ford’s decision to share her story, and now that she has, it is in the hands of the FBI to conduct an investigation. This should happen before the Senate moves forward on this nominee," Feinstein said Sunday afternoon. 
 
 Elana Schor, Darren Samuelsohn and Eliana Johnson contributed to this report. ||||| Judge Brett Kavanaugh picked up a key Republican vote shortly after a full GOP conference meeting immediately following Thursday’s hearing, one day before a key committee vote. Kavanaugh Confirmation GOP barrels toward Kavanaugh vote with key Republicans undecided The Senate Judiciary Committee is moving toward a Friday vote, and GOP leaders are planning to keep the chamber in session on Saturday. 
 
 Senate Republicans are racing to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, betting that the Supreme Court nominee was persuasive enough in his denial that he sexually assaulted a high school acquaintance to counter the powerful testimony of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. 
 
 The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to vote on Friday to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) then plans a Saturday procedural vote to formally move to the nomination, with a potential confirmation vote as early as Tuesday. 
 
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 Publicly, Republicans do not have the votes yet to confirm Kavanaugh, but GOP leaders seem confident they can push him through with brute force. Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) wouldn’t say whether undecided Republicans would back Kavanaugh. They received a burst of momentum on Friday morning, when Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), one of the key swing votes, announced he would back Kavanaugh. 
 
 “We’re still talking through all those issues, and I’m optimistic we’ll get to confirmation,” Cornyn said as he left the Capitol. 
 
 Flake was agonizing over the decision, he said, and seemed to be vacillating on where would land, viewing both Kavanaugh and Ford as credible on Thursday. But he ultimately decided that without corroboration of the assault allegation, he could vote against Kavanaugh. 
 
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 “I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty," Flake said in a statement. "What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence." 
 
 Kavanaugh also picked up a key Republican vote shortly after a full GOP conference meeting immediately following Kavanaugh’s hearing, as Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) announced he would support the nominee. Corker and Flake were key to applying the brakes to Kavanaugh’s confirmation in order to hear out Ford. 
 
 But Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) remain undecided. Those two moderate Republicans, along with Flake and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), met privately before the Republican meeting to discuss the nomination. Manchin said no one in the room gave anything away on how they will come down. 
 
 Then, in the full GOP conference meeting, Murkowski, Collins and Flake offered their colleagues no signal of where they would land, according to an attendee. Rachel Mitchell, a lawyer who was retained by the Senate GOP to question Ford, broke down her analysis of the testimony to Republicans, but did not advise them how to vote. She told them that as a prosecutor she would not charge Kavanaugh or even pursue a search warrant, according to a person briefed on the meeting. 
 
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 Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) would not say how he would vote as he left the meeting. Sasse, one of the most vocal Trump critics in the Senate, said Mitchell gave Republicans in the room a “30-ish minute” presentation during which she laid out “facts that were established and not established.” 
 
 Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) received three standing ovations from Republicans for how he conducted the hearing. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who skewered Democrats for what he called a “despicable” attempt to derail Kavanaugh’s nomination, also received applause from the GOP, said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). 
 
 "There was an awful lot of exchange back and forth but it wasn't always positive,” Roberts said of the Republican gathering. 
 
 In addition to Manchin, Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota are viewed as potential votes for Kavanaugh. All are up for reelection in red states. Senators and aides expect that Donnelly, Manchin, Murkowski and Collins will all vote the same way, though which way that is remains unclear. 
 
 Democrats believe Heitkamp could vote no. But her opponent in her Senate race, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), said he expects her to support the nominee despite Ford’s allegations. 
 
 Grassley declined to forecast how he thinks the critical Judiciary Committee meeting will go on Friday. “We’re meeting at 9:30 a.m., that’s all I can tell you,” he said. “There will be a debate starting at 9:30.” 
 
 His panel has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats; only Flake's vote is in play. McConnell can bring Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor regardless of whether he receives a favorable committee vote. 
 
 After the committee acts, McConnell is expected to move to a procedural vote on Saturday. If that's successful, another procedural vote would occur on Monday, and a final vote on Tuesday. 
 
 Kavanaugh needs at least 50 votes to be confirmed; Vice President Mike Pence would vote if the chamber is evenly split. If all Democrats vote against Kavanaugh, it would take two Republicans voting "no" to block his confirmation. 
 
 Rachael Bade, Sarah Ferris and Marianne Levine contributed to this report.
– President Trump was pleased with his Supreme Court nominee's performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, tweeting that Brett Kavanaugh "showed America exactly why I nominated him." Politico described the mood of Trump and his aides as "ebullient." Trump watched Kavanaugh's opening statement (which Politico calls "combative") and was pleased, an official said. "I think [Kavanaugh] studied the way people around Donald Trump have been treated, and he figured out a way to prevail," the official said. A source speaking to CNN during the hearing summed it up: "The only way to earn respect in Trumpworld is to brawl. And [Kavanaugh] is brawling." Following the hearing, three Republican senators (Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Jeff Flake) and a Democratic one (Joe Manchin) met privately in an office at the Capitol, CNN reports, noting that the three Republicans are the wildcards for whether Kavanaugh will be confirmed.