Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Testifies at Kavanaugh Hearings

Content warning: sexual assault

Supreme Court nominee Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 27, following allegations of sexual assault. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, Justice Kavanaugh previously worked as a top aide to President George W. Bush, and in the US Court of Appeals. He is considered to be a likely opponent of Roe v. Wade.

The allegations against Kavanaugh by a then-anonymous woman first arose in July, Senator Dianne Feinstein, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had requested to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote to the Supreme Court. Ford came public with her allegations against Kavanaugh on Sept. 16. In the past week, three other women, Deborah Ramirez, Julie Swetnick, and one other anonymous woman have come forward with allegations against Kavanaugh.

In Ford’s testimony, she described her experiences with Kavanaugh in detail, stating that her “motivation in coming forward was to provide the facts about how Mr Kavanaugh’s actions have damaged [her] life, so that [the committee] can take that into serious consideration as [they] make [their] decision about how to proceed.” Remaining composed during her testimony, she recalled the alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge. When asked her most vivid memory of the night, she responded with “all of them having fun at my expense.” Kavanaugh adressed the allegations in a heated testimony, describing the current allegations as a political smear campaign by the left. He spoke of his good character as attested to by the women in his life, his relationship to alcohol, and his high school experience as he remembers it.