Kavanaugh insists he will not withdraw supreme court nomination

Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's nominee for the US supreme court, reiterated his vow not to withdraw in an unusual television interview ahead of his testimony on Thursday.

In the interview with Fox News, Mr Kavanaugh appeared with his wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, and said he had a "life-long record of promoting dignity and equality for women starting with the women who knew me when I was 14 years old".

Mr Kavanaugh told Fox News's Martha MacCallum he may have met Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her while he was drunk at a high school party in the early 1980s. But he said he did not remember ever being at a party with her and said he had never sexually assaulted anyone in his life.

He suggested Ms Ford may have mixed him up with someone else, a defence pushed by his allies.

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Last week, Ed Whelan, a conservative lawyer and friend of Mr Kavanaugh's, was forced to apologise after he named another man who attended high school with Mr Kavanaugh as a potential doppelgänger who may have assaulted Ms Ford.

Later in the interview, he rejected claims by Deborah Ramirez that he exposed himself to her at college, an allegation reported by the New Yorker on Sunday evening. "If such a thing had happened, it would've been the talk of campus," he said.

He said fresh allegations made by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who represents Stormy Daniels and now says he represents a client with claims against Mr Kavanaugh, were "totally false and outrageous".

Mr Kavanaugh said he had been a virgin during high school and “for many years there after”. He said he had never been so drunk at high school that he could not remember what happened the night before.

“I’m not going to let false accusations drive us out of this process,” he said, adding that he was confident Mr Trump would stand by him.

“He called me this afternoon, and he said he’s standing by me,” he said. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018