Opposition to Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation has increased every day since last week’s hearing. Kavanaugh’s approval rating is now underwater, with 41 percent opposed and only 33 percent in support of his confirmation.

Reuters/Ipsos poll: Opposition to Kavanaugh grows after Senate hearing

By Lawrence Hurley and Chris Kahn

Opposition among Americans to Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, has increased in the wake of his testimony last week before a U.S. Senate committee in which he defiantly denied sexual misconduct allegations, Reuters/Ipsos polling data showed on Wednesday.

In the latest seven-day average in a survey of U.S. adults, 41 percent of respondents opposed Kavanaugh, 33 percent supported the conservative federal appeals court judge and 26 percent said they did not know.

Opposition to Kavanaugh grew 4 percentage points after the Sept. 27 Judiciary Committee hearing in which university professor Christine Blasey Ford detailed a sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh and he denied it, portraying himself as the victim of a “political hit.”

Opposition grew every day after the hearing in the poll, conducted between Sept. 25 and Oct. 1.

The increase in opposition to Kavanaugh, facing a confirmation vote in the Senate after being nominated by Trump for a lifetime position on the court, appears to be driven by those who previously did not have an opinion. The percentage of respondents with no opinion on Kavanaugh decreased by about 7 percentage points compared to a week before the hearing.

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