Kavanaugh set for showdown

Supreme Court nominee to face accuser in televised hearing

US Republicans have called Brett Kavanaugh and the woman accusing him of sexual assault decades ago to testify publicly next week, grudgingly setting up a dramatic showdown they hope will prevent the allegation from sinking his nomination to the Supreme Court.

Senate leaders announced the move under pressure from fellow Republicans who wanted a fuller, open examination of the allegations from Christine Blasey Ford, a clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California. After initially suggesting a private conference call on the matter would suffice, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, said his panel would hold a hearing on Tuesday “to provide ample transparency”.

The move forced Republicans to put off a planned committee vote for Friday on Kavanaugh’s nomination. The delay makes it increasingly difficult for Kavanaugh to win approval by October 1, when the new session of the Supreme Court begins. It also sets up a public, televised airing of sexual misconduct allegations that could derail Kavanaugh’s nomination altogether.

Just hours earlier, top Republicans had shown no interest in a theatrical spectacle that would thrust Kavanaugh and Ford before television cameras with each offering public — and no doubt conflicting and emotional — versions of what did or didn’t happen at a high school party in the early 1980s.

Instead, Grassley had said he’d seek telephone interviews with Kavanaugh and Ford. Democrats rejected that plan, saying the seriousness of the charges merited a full FBI investigation.

Republicans had also displayed no willingness to delay a Judiciary panel

vote that Grassley had planned for Friday to advance the nomination. But President Donald Trump acknowledged earlier in the day that that schedule might slow, telling reporters at the White House: “If it takes a little delay, it will take a little delay.”

If the Judiciary Committee’s timetable slips further, it would become increasingly difficult for Republicans

to schedule a vote before the November 6 elections, in which congressional control will be at stake.

With fragile GOP majorities of just 11-10 on the Judiciary Committee and 51-49 in the full Senate, Republican leaders had little room for defectors without risking a humiliating defeat of Trump’s nominee to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.