Diehl backs nominee while Baker backs off
GOP Senate candidate Geoff Diehl gave Judge Brett Kavanaugh his full support yesterday — while Gov. Charlie Baker took heat from his Democratic rival for failing to taking a stance at all on the controversial Supreme Court nomination.
“I don’t think there’s any testimony or evidence at this point that indicate that anything inappropriate happened, so unless we hear otherwise, he’s completed the process that would satisfy me,” Diehl told the Herald outside of a campaign event yesterday in Hingham. Diehl later declined to comment on a new allegation by a different woman that was posted last night by The New Yorker, saying he wants to review it.
“It really seems to be a stalling technique to affect not only the Supreme Court seat but also the midterms,” Diehl said of the Ford allegation, accusing Democrats, including his opponent U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of political grandstanding. “She has shown she won’t be reasonable.”
Diehl, a state representative from Whitman, said he’s glad both Kavanaugh and the judge’s accuser, psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, will testify Thursday. But he said nothing that has happened so far would make him vote against Kavanaugh.
Warren’s campaign yesterday declined comment on Diehl’s statement. A campaign spokeswoman referred to what the Democratic senator previously has said or tweeted, statements that generally praised Ford and condemned Kavanaugh, who she has said she would vote against.
Warren over the weekend tweeted that the GOP and President Trump “are demonstrating why most sexual assault survivors never come forward. But it’s not too late to do the right thing. Stop shaming Dr. Ford and twisting yourself into knots to ignore this.”
Meanwhile, a Baker spokesman said yesterday, “Gov. Baker believes these are very serious allegations that warrant an independent investigation.” The campaign for Baker, who was out of state yesterday, didn’t answer questions about what the Senate or Trump should do with the Kavanaugh nomination.
Jay Gonzalez, Baker’s Democratic challenger, swiped at the governor, saying, “It’s typical — Charlie Baker not taking a position on anything controversial.”
Gonzalez told the Herald he wants the Senate to vote down Kavanaugh, both because he disagrees with Kavanaugh’s politics and because he believes Ford’s accusations to be credible.
“I don’t know why anyone would subject themselves to what she’s going through,” Gonzalez told the Herald. “I view it to be a patriotic act on her part.”
Ford claims Kavanaugh, 53, now an appellate court judge, drunkenly forced himself on her at a party in 1982 when they were teenagers in Maryland. Kavanaugh denies it, while four witnesses Ford named all said they have no recollection.