Senate panel backs Kavanaugh
US President Trump tweeted his approval soon after his nominee’s testimony
WASHINGTON: A US Senate committee voted on Friday to advance Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh a step closer to confirmation, a day after it heard emotionally charged depositions from him and a woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school.
After the 11-10 vote, Kavanaugh’s nomination will now go before the full Senate, which Republicans control with a razorthin 51-49 majority. They hope to vote it through if there are no defections, to confirm Kavanaugh to join the court as its ninth and newest member. He will fill a slot left open by a retirement.
Kavanaugh, a court of appeals judge, will be President Donald Trump’s second appointment to the Supreme Court. His nomination was bitterly opposed by Democrats, who suspect he could overturn a long-standing Supreme Court ruling that gives women the right to abortion.
After days of intense grilling by Democratic senators, Kavanaugh had seemed set for confirmation last week, when Christine Blasey Ford, a California university professor, went public with her accusation that he had sexually assaulted her during a teenage party.
The confirmation process came to a grinding halt as even Republicans and Trump agreed the Senate judiciary committee, which was conducting the process, must hear the accuser. This happened during a day-long hearing on Thursday, starting with Ford’s testimony.
Ford repeated her allegations in a voice shaking with emotion — she was terrified, she said in her opening remarks. She went on to testify unequivocally that she was “100%” confident she had been assaulted by Kavanaugh. She was 15 then and he was 17, studying in different high schools.
Testifying next, Kavanaugh was angry, his voice rising at times, and equally emotional in denying the allegations. “This has destroyed my family and my good name,” he said. “This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fuelled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election.”