I’m grateful to my siblings for standing by me and my mother. Statement from Matthew Previn, Sascha Previn, Fletcher Previn, Daisy Previn, Ronan Farrow, Isaiah Farrow, and Quincy Farrow: pic.twitter.com/aBjWFUJjdH

— Dylan Farrow (@RealDylanFarrow) September 17, 2018

Jeff Flake once said Donald Trump didn’t deserve to win the presidency. He later wrote the book, literally, on why Trump is destroying the GOP.

Now Flake holds the keys to a Supreme Court confirmation Trump prizes dearly — and could soon yank them away.

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Flake flashed a yellow light Sunday night on Brett Kavanaugh’s high court bid, telling POLITICO that he won’t support advancing the nomination this week if fellow senators don’t do more to hear out a woman accusing the nominee of sexual assault more than three decades ago. Opposition from the Arizona Republican wouldn’t doom Kavanaugh outright, but it already has ratcheted up political pressure on a GOP struggling to keep Trump’s Supreme Court nominee from a full implosion.

Flake is a charter member of the GOP’s anti-Trump caucus, one of only a few senators in the president’s party who freely tee off on the president’s handling of issues from trade to Russia, though they rarely actively undercut his agenda. Another member of that caucus, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), also called on Sunday night for a delay in the Kavanaugh confirmation process.

But Flake, unlike Corker, sits on the Judiciary Committee. A “no” vote from him on the narrowly divided panel would force Republicans to bring Kavanaugh to the floor with a negative recommendation, or without a committee vote at all, in order to keep the nomination on track.

And also unlike Corker, Flake’s bad blood with the president runs deep: Trump all but ran the Arizonan out of the Senate by making a primary challenge from the right unavoidable, savaging him repeatedly on Twitter over the past two years as “very weak and ineffective” and “Flake(y).”

“I think it’s too soon to tell, but Flake is the one man with the leverage to do this,” GOP strategist and vocal Trump antagonist Rick Wilson said. “With the one-vote margin on the committee, Jeff Flake has the power to stop Kavanaugh, and to humiliate Trump. Revenge is a dish best served cold, as the philosopher once said.”

Flake made no mention of revenge on Sunday night when he spoke out in favor of a more public airing of the previously anonymous allegation against Kavanaugh, which Christine Blasey Ford stepped forward to share on Sunday. But the president’s past treatment of Flake, and the senator’s subsequent retirement, at the very least makes it easier for the Arizonan to cross Trump by using his Judiciary seat to apply the brakes on Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

How far Flake takes the issue, then, is the biggest question as Trump’s high court pick enters a make-or-break week. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is already working to set up a time for senators to hear from Ford, as well as Kavanaugh one more time.

The 53-year-old appeals court judge has vocally denied Ford’s allegation, and the White House stood by its nominee on Sunday. But even if Flake ultimately backs Kavanaugh, two other Republican opponents would doom the nomination in a Senate divided 51-49. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Maine), neither of whom sit on Judiciary, have yet to indicate how they will vote.

“We need to hear from her,” Flake told POLITICO Sunday, referring to Ford. “And I don’t think I’m alone in this.”

Flake isn’t the GOP anti-Trump caucus’ only member on Judiciary: Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) also has rapped the president repeatedly since Trump took office. But Sasse has said nothing publicly since the sexual assault allegation emerged and his spokesman had no comment on the matter Sunday night.

Before Trump’s election in 2016, Flake also battled conservatives in his own party over the fate of a Supreme Court seat that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held open until after voters went to the polls. While Texas Sen. Ted Cruz urged fellow Republicans to hold the spot open for even longer if Hillary Clinton won the presidency, Flake said then that if Clinton prevailed “I will be actively trying to round up votes” for taking up Merrick Garland’s nomination.

In 2016, Flake used his introduction to Trump — then the presidential nominee-in-waiting of their party — to ding the New Yorker for dismissing the heroism of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a close friend and mentor of Flake. Flake introduced himself to Trump, according to reports at the time, as the senator from Arizona who “didn’t get captured” — a dig at Trump’s remark that he liked “people who weren’t captured,” diminishing McCain’s service as a prisoner of war.

After Trump took office, Flake raised some hackles within his party by billing his book, Conscience of a Conservative, as an open rebuttal to the president’s politics. Flake also has delivered multiple floor speeches criticizing Trump’s bellicose and truth-averse tendencies, warning in January that Trump is “charting a very dangerous path.”

Flake had yet to announce his vote on Kavanaugh before the emergence of Ford’s sexual assault allegation, which dates back to when she and the judge were in high school. During his questioning of the nominee during his marathon confirmation hearing, Flake tried to get Kavanaugh to weigh in on Trump’s harsh criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions for allowing the Justice Department to pursue indictments of two GOP House members.

“Should a president be able to use his authority to pressure executive or independent agencies to carry out directives for purely political purposes?” Flake asked Kavanaugh.

The nominee demurred, saying that “I don’t think we want judges commenting on the latest political controversy” lest their independence be questioned.

Flake rephrased the question, to which Kavanaugh said that “I respectfully decline” to address “current events or politics.”

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Crisscrossing longtime Reagan Revolution territory in his “Big Blue” campaign bus this weekend, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom – enjoying a comfortable cushion in the polls – has turned his focus to driving the resistance.

He’s stumping for a parade of candidates for the state legislature and U.S. House, arguing their victories will send a strong message in November that California will “repudiate Donald Trump and Trumpism.”

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“Orange is the new blue!’’ said Newsom to cheers as he looked out at a sea of Democratic faces, grassroots activists and a long line of hopefuls at a rally in Huntington Beach, one of the campaign stops Saturday in Orange County — a storied GOP stronghold which Reagan once described as “where good Republicans go to die.”

With just 50 days to the November midterm elections, and President Donald Trump’s approval ratings hovering at a dismal 32 percent in California, Newsom’s frenzied drive for other Democrats — and the robust turnout at his recent events — highlighted the level of grassroots outrage and dogged determination in the “state of resistance” to counter Trump’s actions on immigration, environmental regulation rollbacks, the GOP tax plan and Republicans’ continued efforts to unravel the Affordable Care Act.

“Folks in Orange County are counting on us to stand up for our values — Orange County values are American values,’’ Democratic candidate Katie Porter, a University of California at Irvine law professor, told an overflow crowd in Tustin, where she stood alongside Newsom at a campaign event Saturday. Porter, who has mounted a serious challenge to Rep. Mimi Walters in California’s 45^th congressional district, told hundreds of Democrats that Walters was among the GOP House members in California who are “selling our democracy to the highest bidder.”

Porter was just one of a crowd of Democratic candidates who welcome Newsom’s “Big Blue” campaign bus tour this weekend to fire up anti-Trump sentiment just days before Californians begin casting mail-in ballots.

Newsom’s campaign swing came on the same day the president’s son, Eric Trump, was fundraising with Republicans in the same region. Though he did no public events, Trump posed for photos with 49th Congressional District GOP House candidate Diane Harkey, who tweeted about “a really packed house…lots of energy in the room to help us win in November!”

On Saturday alone in Huntington Beach, Newsom boosted Democratic businessman Harley Rouda, who’s aiming to unseat 15-term GOP incumbent Dana Rohrabacher in California’s 48^th Congressional District. After rallying with Porter, Newsom fired up hundreds of enthusiastic Democrats to a rally in Encinitas, where environmentalist Mike Levin is seeking the seat of retiring Rep. Darrell Issa in what’s widely viewed as a toss-up race against Harkey.

At every stop, the California lieutenant governor stood on stage to introduce a parade of local candidates for city council, county supervisor and for state Assembly and Senate who basked in the attention.

The effort Saturday — with his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom and their four children along for the ride — wrapped up five days in which the Democratic gubernatorial candidate has raced his way through 15 rallies aimed at assisting 24 state and local legislative candidates from Berkeley to San Diego.

“We’re taking nothing for granted,’’ Newsom said in an interview as his campaign bus wound its way through California’s Inland Empire and the congressional district home to Issa, the former House Oversight committee chair considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable Republicans until he announced his retirement last year.

Newsom says his drive to highlight other Democrats should not be taken as a sign that he’s overconfident in his own bid to succeed four-term governor Jerry Brown. “I hope it’s a sign of respect. … It’s a way of building trust’’ with Democrats who may take legislative seats up and down the state, he said. Because for the next governor of California, as Newsom hopes to be, “there’s no success without their success.”

Telling grassroots activists at the rallies that they need to “run the 90-yard dash” to get out every single Democratic votes by November, Newsom cast his battle to be governor as one of in which a rising tide will lift all Democratic boats to push back a wave of “Trumpism.”

“We’re all bound together by a web of mutuality….we rise and fall together. That’s the principles and the values of the Democratic party and we recognize it,’’ he said in Tustin, standing next to Porter. “No one stands taller than when he or she bends down on one knee and helps lift other people up.”

Many of the campaign volunteers and activists who turned out for Newsom say his efforts are especially welcomed by Democrats at the local level — many of them newcomers to political activity.

“I personally sought out Gavin at every event and said, “You need to come to Orange County,’’ said Lorelei Lachman, a Huntington Beach realtor who made her first plunge into politics for the Women’s March in early 2017. Like many of the county’s Democratic activists in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, “felt we had to do something,’’ she said. “It was organic.”

Lachman was one of a crowd of activists who formed the “HBHuddle,” a nonpartisan grassroots group that now numbers 2,000 activists working to elect candidates in the November midterm. The group is now backing Democrats including 74^th Assembly District candidate Cottie Petrie-Norris, 72nd Assembly District candidate Josh Lowenthal, Senate candidate Tom Umberg, and Duke Nguyen, who’s seeking to become the first Democratic sheriff of Orange County.

Newsom’s visit on Saturday, she said, served to highlight their bids — and fire up he volunteers.

“People are inspired, and optimistic about a ‘blue wave’ in California, but we recognize it will take efforts at every level,” said Brandon Perkins, an HB Huddle activist of Newsom’s efforts around the state. “We need to be really focused on the local races — because that’s where we can really make a difference.”

Political strategists said Newsom’s effort to share the spotlight is both savvy — and strategic.

“It’s a brilliant strategy – and it is exactly the opposite of what Jerry Brown did in 2014, sitting on his butt and not lifting a finger for other Democrats,’’ says veteran Democratic strategist Garry South, who served as senior advisor to Gov. Gray Davis and has advised Newsom in the past. The result, he says ruefully, is that “we lost our two-thirds majorities in both houses.”

By contrast, South said Newsom understands that “you can’t just sit there on a lead to look like you’re taking things for granted. So you kill two birds with one stone: being out there, visible and aggressive but with the end goal of helping Democratic candidates for Congress and the legislature get elected.”

“It pays benefits for him when he’s in office,’’ he said, “because some of these legislative candidates will be in his debt because he went out of his way.”

In solidly blue California, where Democrats enjoy a 19-point voter registration advantage — and President Trump’s approval ratings are at a historic low — Newsom has long been viewed as the solid frontrunner in his run against millionaire businessman John Cox, who previously ran for U.S. Senate and president in his home state of Illinois.

The Democratic lieutenant governor also enjoys a considerable money advantage, and is expected to start using that funding for major TV buys soon. From the start of his campaign nearly three years ago, Newsom has raised five times that of Cox, or nearly $47 million. The Republican businessman, estimated to be worth $100 million, has put nearly $6 million of his own money into the race — making Cox himself his campaign’s largest donor.

The RealClearPolitics average polling showed Newsom ahead of Cox by 23.4 percentage points in July – though a recent Probolsky Poll, a Republican firm, had the race in the single digits.

Cox in recent weeks has aimed to portray Newsom as an elite “fortunate son” who has enjoyed the patronage of rich San Francisco families like the oil magnate Gettys. And in a campaign that has echoed some of the themes of Trump, who has endorsed him, he has charged that the state’s “forgotten” men and women have been left behind in “Gavin Newsom’s California,’’ where the poverty rate is the highest in the nation.

In Tustin, a handful of Cox’s supporters showed up to challenge Newsom’s bus in Tustin, but they were far outnumbered by Democratic activists who jammed Newsom’s rallies.

In California, “the gubernatorial contest is a coronation, not a competition,’’ said political analyst Kurt Bardella, a former Republican who once served as spokesman for Issa and for Breitbart News. “The California GOP is functionally irrelevant — allowing Governor-elect Newsom to focus on expanding the Democratic playing field and try and make gains in previously strong Republican strongholds likes Orange County and San Diego.”

Bardella says that “the fact that Newsom can so deliberately campaign in Issa’s district illustrates how toxic Trump has become to the GOP brand. Rather than resist Trump’s toxicity, Republicans like Issa, have embraced it further eroding the political relevance of the Republican Party in California,’’ he said. “It’s a trend Republicans at the national level should observe — because it foreshadows where the Trump train will ultimately lead the entire GOP.”

Newsom, on his campaign stops, used the opportunity to push back at Republicans, including Cox, Donald Trump and most recently Senator Ted Cruz who have suggested California is a failed state hobbled by homelessness and high taxes. Cruz, in pitching for votes, recently claimed Democrats are aiming to turn Texas into California, which he called the home of “dyed hair and silicon.’’

Newsom acknowledged California’s challenges in his Saturday rallies – telling Democrats that both endemic homelessness and the high poverty rate are both outcomes of skyrocketing housing costs which he said must be addressed by the next governor.

But he also garnered applause in Tustin when he launched on a theme that has driven his campaign — the notion that Democrats are best poised to continue to deliver the state’s booming economy and promise — what movies, literature and music have rhapsodize as “The California Dream.”

“There’s no other state that has a dream. You think about that. Is there a Florida dream? All these people talking about Texas; no Texas Dream. Or Louisiana Dream. Love New Hampshire, but there’s no New Hampshire Dream,’’ he told Democrats.

“There’s the American Dream and the California Dream. We’re dreamers and doers, entrepreneurs and innovators. We’re scientists, we’re researchers. More Nobel Laureates than anywhere else in the world….That’s California. The best days are not behind us,’’ he said. “The best days are in front of us.”