WASHINGTON (AP) — In a clash along a polarized nation's political and cultural fault lines, the Senate Judiciary Committee began its historic hearing Thursday in which Brett Kavanaugh hoped to salvage his Supreme Court nomination by fending off allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he'd molested her when both were in high school.

Kavanaugh and Ford were the only witnesses invited to testify before the panel of 11 Republicans — all men — and 10 Democrats. But the conservative jurist is facing allegations of sexual misconduct from other women as well, forcing Republican leaders to struggle to keep support for him from eroding.

The committee was to hear first from Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who accuses him of attempting to rape her when they were teens.

Republicans have derided Ford's allegation as part of a smear campaign and a Democratic plot to sink Kavanaugh's nomination. But after more allegations have emerged, some GOP senators have allowed that much is riding on his performance. Even President Donald Trump, who nominated Kavanaugh and fiercely defends him, said he was "open to changing my mind."

"I want to watch, I want to see," he said at a news conference Wednesday in New York.

Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge who has long been eyed for the Supreme Court, has repeatedly denied all the allegations, saying he'd never heard of the latest accuser and calling her accusations "ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone."