Kavanaugh and accuser to testify
WASHINGTON • Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who accuses him of a decades-old sexual assault will testify before a Senate committee, a senior GOP senator said, in what promises to be an explosive public showdown in the era of the MeToo movement.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a new hearing on Sept. 24, said Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.
Panel Chairman Chuck Grassley bowed to pressure from Democrats and some Republicans to hear from Christine Blasey Ford, who says Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party when they were in high school.
Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the claim, and President Donald Trump defended his second high court choice Monday as one of “the finest people I’ve ever known.
“If it takes a little delay, it’ll take a little delay” to get him confirmed, the president said.
Trump already is under pressure from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and the prospect of Republicans losing control of the House or Senate, or both, in the Nov. 6 election. The GOP has hoped to use Kavanaugh’s confirmation as a major campaign selling point. Republicans control the Senate 51-49, meaning they need no Democratic votes if no more than one GOP senator defects.
The upcoming hearing will be a milestone in the Me Too movement that seeks to hold people responsible for sexual abuse and harassment.
It comes 27 years after the bruising confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, accused of sexually harassing attorney Anita Hill when he was her supervisor at two federal agencies. Both testified publicly before the then all-male Judiciary Committee, and Thomas was confirmed on a 52-48 vote.
Ford, a California college professor, says Kavanaugh was drunk at a house party in about 1982 and pinned her down on a bed, tried to remove her clothes and put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming.
Kavanaugh said in a statement issued Monday by the White House, “This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone.”
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate and a crucial GOP vote, said Monday she wants to hear “testimony under oath with a lot of questions asked of both of them.”
“Obviously if Judge Kavanaugh has lied about what happened, that would be disqualifying,” Collins said.
The sex assault allegation threatens to harm the GOP’s already lacklustre standing with women. Female voters preferred Democratic candidates over Republicans by 54 per cent to 33 per cent, while 62 per cent of women disapproved of Trump’s job performance, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll in July.