Televised Kavanaugh hearings rivet nation

Fighting to salvage his nomination to the US Supreme Court, US Judge Brett Kavanaugh angrily and tearfully denied on Thursday a university professor’s accusation that he sexually assaulted her 36 years ago, after she told a dramatic US Senate hearing she was “100 percent certain” he did it.

Christine Blasey Ford, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, appeared in public for the first time to detail her allegations against Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen by President Donald Trump for a lifetime job on the top US court. Ford told the committee she feared Kavanaugh would rape and accidentally kill her during the alleged assault when both her high school students in Maryland.

Kavanaugh testified after Ford finished her appearance, and they were never in the hearing room together.

The clash pitted her word against his.

“I swear today, under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge,” Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee.

Calling himself a victim of “grotesque and obvious character assassination,” Kavanaugh, speaking passionately, said he “unequivocally and categorically” denied Ford’s allegation.

“I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process,” Kavanaugh added.

Kavanaugh at times choked back tears, especially when he mentioned that his daughter suggested they pray for Ford, when he spoke of his father and when he mentioned women friends who have rallied to support him.

The momentous hearing could determine whether Kavanaugh will be confirmed by the Senate after a pitched political battle between Trump’s fellow Republicans and Democrats who oppose the nominee.

Kavanaugh sharply attacked Democratic senators, calling himself the victim of “a calculated and orchestrated political hit” fueled by anger on the left at Trump’s 2016 election win. Kavanaugh tangled with Democratic senators, at one point repeatedly interrupting Senator Patrick Leahy.

Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, said over four hours of testimony that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers when he was 17 years old and she was 15 in 1982.

“With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?” Democratic Senator Richard Durbin asked Ford.

“One hundred percent,” she replied.

Ford said “absolutely not” when Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if it could be a case of mistaken identity, as Kavanaugh has suggested.

While some Republicans and Trump have called the allegations by Ford and the two other women part of a smear campaign, Ford told the committee she had no political motivation, adding, “I am an independent person and I am no pawn.”

Kavanaugh, sitting alone at the witness table, said he wanted to testify as soon as Ford’s allegation first emerged last week and was not surprised that other allegations followed.

“In those 10 long days, as was predictable and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations.”

The committee could vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Friday, with a final Senate vote early next week.