Angry Kavanaugh denies accusation
Emotionally battling to rescue his Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh fought back Thursday against allegations that he’d sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when both were high school students, telling Congress that allegations by her and others have “totally and permanently destroyed” his family and his reputation.
In a loud voice, the conservative jurist told the Senate Judiciary Committee that his confirmation process had become “a national disgrace.”
“You have replaced ‘advice and consent’ with ‘search and destroy,”’ he said.
Shortly before, Ford had told the same senators that she was “100 per cent” certain a drunken young Kavanaugh was the one who had pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes and clapped a hand over her mouth as she tried to yell for help. A Kavanaugh friend stood by and they both laughed uproariously during the incident, she testified.
Kavanaugh told the senators,
his voice raised: “I have never done this to her or to anyone.”
With his support among Senate Republicans in question, he also said he would not step side.
“You may defeat me in the final vote, but you’ll never get me to quit, never.”
Behind him in the audience,
his wife, Ashley, sat looking stricken. He himself was close to tears when he mentioned his mother and daughter and, later, his father.
Earlier, Ford’s account, delivered in a soft and sometimes halting voice, came as the Senate Judiciary Committee
held an extraordinary session that Republicans hope will salvage Kavanaugh’s chances of joining the high court.
Ford’s tone was polite but firm in three hours of testimony during which repeated her accusations but offered no major new revelations.