It has also deepened the country’s political polarization. 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize majority control of Congress from the Republicans. The bitter fight over Kavanaugh’s nomination is unfolding just weeks before the Nov. She took turns with the Democratic senators to ask questions in five-minute segments, disrupting her flow.ĭuring Kavanaugh’s testimony, Republican senators sidelined Mitchell and asked their own questions. While Mitchell probed Ford’s account looking for gaps, her questioning seemed disjointed. The panel’s Republican senators, all men, did not question her, assigning that task to Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor. I tried to yell for help,” Ford said, adding that Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were “drunkenly laughing during the attack.”ĭemocratic senators sought to score political points during their five minutes apiece of questioning Ford. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothing. “Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. She told the senators she was “terrified” to testify but felt it was her civic duty to come forward While some Republicans and Trump have called the allegations by Ford and the two other women part of a smear campaign, Ford told the committee she had no political motivation, adding: “I am an independent person and I am no one’s pawn.”įord was seated at a table in the packed hearing room flanked by her lawyers, facing a bank of senators. And I believe many Americans across the country believe you,” Democratic Senator Kamala Harris said. Ford’s testimony to be credible.”įor his part, Kavanaugh testified he was “100 percent certain” none of the alleged incidents of sexual misconduct occurred.ĭemocrats lauded Ford’s testimony as credible, brave and, in the words of Senator Cory Booker, “nothing short of heroic.” Murkowski, one of the three moderate Republican senators who have not announced whether or not they will support Kavanaugh, told Reuters: “I find Dr.
When Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if it could be a case of mistaken identity, as Kavanaugh and some Republican senators have suggested, Ford replied: “Absolutely not”. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 27, 2018. “One hundred percent,” she replied, remaining firm and unruffled even under questioning by a sex crimes prosecutor hired by the committee’s Republicans. “With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin asked Ford. “I swear today, under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge,” Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee.įord, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, said over four hours of testimony that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers when he was 17 years old and she was 15. Kavanaugh sharply attacked Democratic senators, calling himself the victim of “a calculated and orchestrated political hit” fueled by anger on the left at Trump’s 2016 election win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, his conservative judicial record, and revenge on behalf of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Kavanaugh at times choked back tears, especially when he mentioned that his daughter suggested they pray for Ford, when he spoke of his father and when he mentioned women friends who had rallied to support him. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist.
Writing on Twitter after the hearing, Trump said of Kavanaugh: “His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. The Judiciary Committee, on which Republicans hold an 11-10 majority, was to meet on Friday morning and several senators said they expected it to vote then.