Senate appearance uncertain
Kavanaugh accuser gets one more day to decide to testify
WASHINGTON — The high-stakes brinkmanship over whether Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser would testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee came to a momentary standstill as GOP Chairman Chuck Grassley gave Christine Blasey Ford more time to decide on the terms of her appearance.
The Republican-led committee insisted that if Ford missed a Friday night deadline to respond to the panel’s latest offer it would hold a vote Monday on recommending Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination for the full Senate to consider.
In a late-night tweet Grassley said he was granting Ford more time.
“I just granted another extension,” Grassley wrote around midnight
EDT Friday. He did not say how long he would wait for Ford “to decide if she wants to proceed.” Aides did not respond to requests for more information.
In backing away from his deadline, Grassley underscored the sensitivity with which Senate Republicans have tried handling Ford.
But Grassley also struck an apologetic tone toward Kavanaugh, adding he hoped the judge understands.
“It’s not my normal approach” to be “indecisive,” Grassley tweeted.
The late-night back-and-forth left in question whether Ford would appear before the Gop-run committee and describe her allegation to millions of voters.
Now a 51-year-old California psychology professor, Ford says an inebriated Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed, muffled her cries and tried removing her clothes when both were teenagers in the 1980s.
Kavanaugh, a District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals judge, has repeatedly denied the accusation. He has said he wants to appear before the committee as soon as possible to clear his name.
Lawyers have been negotiating various aspects of the public session and Grassley set a 10 p.m. EDT deadline Friday to respond to the panel’s latest offer.
Just was time was running out,
Ford lawyer Debra Katz late Friday requested another day to decide. She called Grassley’s deadline “arbitrary” and said its “sole purpose is to bully Dr. Ford and deprive her of the ability to make a considered decision that has life-altering implications for her and her family.”
Earlier Friday, Grassley rejected concessions Ford wanted if she is tell her story publicly before the committee.
Grassley turned down Ford’s request that only senators, not attorneys, be allowed to ask questions.
He also rejected her proposal that she testify after Kavanaugh.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine spoke to reporters in New Hampshire on Friday night, after Grassley set his 10 p.m. EDT deadline.
She said she agrees that Ford should be allowed to testify later in the week without Kavanaugh present, and said she has recommended that lawyers for the two sides be allowed to do the questioning. She said she disagrees with the request that Ford testify after Kavanaugh.
Colllins did not directly answer whether she disagreed with scheduling a vote for Monday.
Grassley said he’d schedule a hearing for Wednesday, not Thursday, as Ford prefers.
Grassley rebuffed other Ford requests, including calling additional witnesses.
Grassley consented to other Ford demands, including that she be provided security and that Kavanaugh not be in the hearing room when she testifies.