A sixth grader of average intelligence could have pointed out to him that SC justices don't serve rigidly defined terms like this ... and that history is filled with examples of justices who began serving in the middle of a term (like NEIL GORSUCH just 18 months earlier, for example).
He’s afraid Antifa will hassle him again. IOW, a coward.
“...when he came out one night and made the inexplicably ignorant claim that the Democrat game plan was to delay his confirmation until after the 2018-19 Supreme Court session began on October 1st and he’d be ineligible to serve for another year.”
They DEFINITELY wanted to drag out the fight beyond the election, since the issue was lose-lose for the Dems. In other words, support Kavanaugh and their base stays home; oppose Kavanaugh and Republicans come out.
The part regarding another year doesn’t make sense, but if the Dems had won the Senate by delaying Kavanaugh just enough, then Kavanaugh would have never been confirmed (unless in lame duck).