Trump dismisses anti-Kavanaugh protesters as 'rude elevator screamers' paid for by George Soros

Protesters credited for helping secure additional FBI probe

Donald Trump has dismissed a survivor of sexual assault who confronted a Republican senator about his support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as “rude elevator screamers”, paid for my George Soros.

Last week, Republican Jeff Flake was confronted by two women in an elevator on Capitol Hill after news broke he was going to vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve Mr Trump’s supreme court nominee.

“What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them. I have two children,” said one of the women, Ana Maria Archila.

A second woman, Maria Gallagher, yelled at him: “I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me. I didn't tell anyone and you're telling all women that they don't matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them.”

On Friday morning, as the senate prepared for a ballot that would set up Mr Kavanaugh for a confirmation vote - perhaps as early as Saturday, Mr Trump tweeted: “The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers.“

The action by the women was considered one of the reasons Mr Flake subsequently insisted he would only vote in favour of Mr Kavanaugh, if the full senate vote was delayed and the FBI given a week to carry out an additional background check into allegations of sexual abuse.

Mr Trump's reference to Mr Soros was partly accurate; Ms Archila is the co-executive director of the Centre for Popular Democracy, a New York-based activist group. Records show the group receives $500,000 from Open Society Foundations, the grant-making body funded by the 88-year-old Hungarian-American liberal philanthropist.

“This country is being ripped apart here,” he told the committee. “We’ve got to make sure that we do due diligence.”

The committee voted along party lines 11-10 to forward the 53-year-old judge’s to the full senate for a confirmation hearing. The FBI completed its report on Wednesday and on Thursday, senators were given a chance to read a copy of it. Two of three Republicans whose support had been considered uncertain - Mr Flake and Susan Collins, a senator from Maine, said they had seen nothing in it, to stop Mr Kavanaugh''s confirmation going forward.