Makeorbreak hearing day

Senate judiciary panel to hear from Kavanaugh, accuser

WASHINGTON» With high drama in the making, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh emphatically fended off new accusations of sexual misconduct Wednesday and headed into a charged public Senate hearing that could determine whether Republicans can salvage his nomination and enshrine a high court conservative majority.

The Senate Judiciary Committee — 11 Republicans, all men, and 10 Democrats — was to hear from just two witnesses Thursday: Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge who has long been eyed for the Supreme Court, and Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who accuses him of attempting to rape her when they were teenagers.

Republicans have derided her

allegation as part of a smear campaign and a Democratic plot to sink Kavanaugh’s nomination. But after more allegations have emerged, some GOP senators have allowed that much is riding on Kavanaugh’s performance. Even President Donald Trump, who nominated Kavanaugh and fiercely defends him, said he was “open to changing my mind.”

“I want to watch; I want to see,” he said at a news conference in New York.

Kavanaugh has denied all the allegations repeatedly, saying he’d never even heard of the latest accuser and calling her accusations “ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone.”

The hearing will be the first time the country sees and hears from the 51yearold Ford beyond the grainy photo that has been flashed on television in the 10 days since she came forward with her contention. In testimony released before the hearing, she said she was appearing only because she felt it is her duty, was frankly “terrified” and has been the target of vile harassment and even death threats.

“It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr. Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court,” she was to tell the senators. “My responsibility is to tell the truth.”

The stakes for both political parties — and the country — are high. Republicans are pushing to seat Kavanaugh before the November midterms, when Senate control could fall to the Democrats and a replacement Trump nominee could have even greater difficulty. Kavanaugh’s ascendance to the high court could help lock in a conservative majority for a generation, shaping dozens of rulings on abortion, regulation, the environment and more.

But Republicans risk rejection by female voters in November if they are seen as not respecting women and their allegations.

In the hours before the hearing, Republicans were rocked by the new accusation from a third woman, Julie Swetnick. In a sworn statement, she said she witnessed Kavanaugh “consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women in the early 1980s.” Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, who also represents a porn actress who is suing Trump, provided her sworn declaration to the Judiciary Committee.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for Deborah Ramirez, who says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party when they attended Yale University, raised her profile in a round of television interviews.

Transcripts of private interviews with committee investigators, released late Wednesday, show they also asked Kavanaugh about two other previously undisclosed accusations received by Senate offices. One came in an anonymous letter sent to Sen. Cory Gardner’s office. The other accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in college.

Republicans largely expressed confidence in Kavanaugh before the hearing, emerging from a lunch with Vice President Mike Pence to say the nominee remains on track for confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all week has said Republicans will turn to a committee vote on Kavanaugh after the hearing. They hope for a roll call by the full Senate — where they have a scant 5149 majority — early next week with the aim of getting him on the court as its new term begins.