Angry Kavanaugh denies Ford’s accusation, sees ‘disgrace’
IN A defiant and emotional bid to rescue his Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh denied allegations yesterday that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when both were high school students and angrily told Congress that Democrats were engaged in “a calculated and orchestrated political hit”.
“You have replaced ‘advice and consent’ with ‘search and destroy,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, referring to the Constitution’s charge to senators’ duties in confirming high officials.
He vowed to continue his effort to join the high court, to which President Donald Trump nominated him in July. Now a judge on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, Kavanaugh seemed assured of confirmation until Ford and several other accusers emerged in recent weeks. He has denied all the accusations, but it remained unclear how the day’s dramatic testimony by Ford and Kavanaugh would affect his prospects.
“You may defeat me in the final vote, but you’ll never get me to quit, never,” he said.
PERSONAL MEMORIES
In a daylong, extraordinary Senate airing of long-ago and painfully personal memories, Ford told the senators that she was “100 per cent” certain a drunk young Kavanaugh had pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes, and clapped a hand over her mouth as she tried to yell for help. A Kavanaugh friend stood by and they both laughed uproariously during the incident, which occurred in a locked bedroom at a gathering of high school friends, she testified.
In her three hours of testimony, Ford’s tone was polite but firm as she detailed her accusations but offered no major new revelations. Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona who asked all the questions for the committee’s all-male GOP senators, seemed to elicit no significant inconsistencies in her testimony.
But as deferential and hushed as Ford’s delivery was, Kavanaugh’s was incensed and combative. He repeatedly interrupted Democratic senators’ questions, including on whether he would support their bid for testimony by Mark Judge, the friend who Ford has claimed participated in Kavanaugh’s attack on her.
THE FBI
When Senator Richard Durbin pressed him to request an FBI probe, Kavanaugh said that he would do whatever the committee wished and repeatedly refused to change that position. Trump and Republicans have refused to bring the FBI into the matter.
“I want to know what you want to do,” Durbin said.
“I’m telling the truth,” said Kavanaugh.
“I want to know what you want to do, judge!” Durbin repeated.
“I’m innocent. I’m innocent of this charge,” Kavanaugh said.
The emotional tone continued as Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Kavanaugh’s strongest backers, lashed out at Democrats.
“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold his seat open, and hope you win in 2020,” he said, referring to that year’s presidential election.
Both Kavanaugh and Ford testified under sworn oath, leaving senators who will decide his fate and millions of Americans watching television to parse whose version to believe.