A Democrat who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee suggested Monday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ought to take a polygraph test rather than sit down for an interview with Fox News.

"If Judge Kavanaugh wants to set this record straight, there are easy ways for him to come forward," Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told CNN, suggesting the judge "submit to a lie detector test" or "further FBI background questioning." He added: "An interview on Fox News doesn't quite rise to that standard."

Kavanaugh and wife Ashley, a Maryland suburb town manager, sat down with Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Monday after a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, came forward late Sunday to publicly accuse the judge of exposing himself to her during a Yale University party in the 1980s when the pair were undergraduates at the school.

But Coons insisted Monday a lie detector test would be a more compelling way for Kavanaugh to convey his side of the story, despite those assessments not usually being admissible in traditional court proceedings. He added that one of Kavanaugh's accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, had a former FBI agent administer a lie detector test for her while she was still contemplating going public with her claim the judge drunkenly forced himself on her in 1982 at a high school house party.

"Yet they are widely used by the federal government in order to conduct certain background checks and to confirm that certain folks are appropriate to serve in federal law enforcement functions," Coons countered. "What would really count in my view is if both of them would submit to further questioning by the FBI and bring forward names of folks who they would suggest would be able to corroborate their side of the story."


In excerpts from the Fox News interview released Monday ahead of it being aired in full, Kavanaugh said he refused to allow false allegations led him to withdraw his nomination for the country's highest court.

“I’m not going to let false accusations drive us out of this process, and we’re looking for a fair process where I can be heard and defend my integrity, my lifelong record," the judge said. "My lifelong record of promoting dignity and equality for women starting with the women who knew me when I was 14 years old. I’m not going anywhere.”

Kavanaugh and Ford are scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding her claims.