Supreme Court
Republicans insist FBI will not look into Ford’s claims
To professor who accused nominee of abuse, Republicans say window closing to tell story before confirmation vote.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday bluntly questioned the allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a fellow high school student over 30 years ago, and Republicans warned the accuser that the window was closing to tell her story before a confirmation vote.
Trump’s skepticism, the most explicit challenge top Republicans have so far mounted to Christine Blasey Ford’s credibility, came as GOP Senate leaders tried to firm up support for Kavanaugh. A potentially climactic Judiciary Committee showdown is scheduled for next Monday with both Ford and Kavanaugh invited, but her attendance is uncertain, casting doubt on whether the hearing will be held at all.
Ford has said she wants the FBI to investigate her allegation before she will testify. Democrats support that, but Trump and Senate Republicans have been emphatic that it won’t happen.
Leaving the White House to survey flood damage in North Carolina, Trump conceded that “we’ll have to make a decision” if Ford’s account proves convincing. Despite that glimmer of hesitancy, which few other Republicans have shown publicly, the president stood firmly behind the 53-year-old Kavanaugh.
“I can only say this: He is such an outstanding man. Very hard for me to imagine that anything happened,” Trump said.
The Republicans are resisting all Democratic efforts to slow and perhaps block what once seemed a smooth path to confirmation that would promote the conservative appeals court judge by the Oct. 1 opening of the Supreme Court’s new term. Kavanaugh’s glide to approval was interrupted last weekend when word of Ford’s allegation became public, but GOP senators are showing no signs of slowing their drive to confirm him as quickly as possible.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-iowa, wrote to Ford’s attorneys that the hearing was still scheduled for Monday morning, and he pointedly said she must submit her written statement by 10 a.m. Friday “if she intends to testify” that day.
One key Democrat, Missouri Sen. Claire Mccaskill, announced Wednesday she will vote against Kavanaugh, depriving Trump’s nominee of a possible swing vote.
Mccaskill called the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh troubling, but said she based her decision on the judge’s views on issues like presidential power and “dark money” in campaigns. She’s the first of five undecided Senate Democrats in competitive re-election races to come out against Kavanaugh.
The struggle between the two parties over the Kavanaugh allegation illustrates how they are trying to navigate a political climate in which the #Metoo movement of outing sexual abusers has galvanized many female voters.