Showdown in the Senate
Vote for Supreme Court nominee looms after excruciating day of testimony
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. Tom Williams/AP
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(Update: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday afternoon voted along party lines to approve the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., voted for the nomination but called for an FBI investigation of the accusations against Kavanaugh before the full Senate votes on the nomination. At the committee’s request, President Donald Trump on Friday ordered an FBI investigation into any “current credible” sexual assault claims against Kavanaugh, to be completed within one week.)
In an extraordinary day on Capitol Hill, senators heard anguished testimony on Thursday from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accuses Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school.
In an excruciating and explosive hearing that lasted more than eight hours, Ford and Kavanaugh each offered testimony and answered questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about Ford’s accusations.
By the end of the day, the picture remained as divided as it was at the beginning: Ford testified she was 100 percent sure Kavanaugh assaulted her. Kavanaugh testified he was 100 percent sure he didn’t attack Ford or any other woman.
Both appeared sincere and heartbroken.
In such a difficult conundrum, perhaps the only way to parse through the situation is to examine evidence. While Ford offered compelling testimony during her portion of the hearing, she did not provide corroborating evidence, and the firsthand witnesses she cited haven't backed up her claims. Kavanaugh noted that other people Ford has claimed were at a party where she says an attack took place have said they don’t remember such a gathering.
Ford described an attack in the summer of 1982 at a gathering with friends. She said Kavanaugh jumped on top of her in a bedroom and tried to remove her clothing, while another classmate, Mike Judge, looked on. Judge has said he doesn’t recall such an incident.
Ford said she does remember the event, and she described “uproarious laughter” between the two boys as an indelible memory. She said the attack had caused lifelong struggles with anxiety and trauma.
In a hallway outside the hearing room, committee member Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he “found no reason not to find her credible,” but said he also wanted to hear from Kavanaugh later in the day.
During his testimony, Kavanaugh said he was not questioning that Ford “may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time,” but he insisted he did not attack her.
Kavanaugh appeared indignant as he began his testimony, decrying the committee’s last-minute handling of Ford’s accusations, and saying some members of the panel were on a mission to “search and destroy.”
But he grew emotional as he described the toll the process had taken on his family, including his young daughters. He broke into tears when he recounted his 10-year-old daughter recently telling his wife during her bedtime prayers: “We should pray for the woman.”
Kavanaugh’s exchanges with Democratic senators grew testy, and at one point he apologized to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., for questioning her drinking habits after she questioned his drinking history.
Republicans were less apologetic about their angst, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., exploding in anger over the Democrats’ handling of the process, calling it “the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote for Friday afternoon on whether Kavanaugh should be confirmed to the Supreme Court. A full-Senate vote could come as early as next week, but at least three Republican senators remained undecided about their votes by Thursday evening: Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. (On Friday morning, Flake announced he still had “doubt” about the testimony but would vote to confirm Kavanaugh.)
The Senate vote promises to widen the already-acerbic divides between Republicans and Democrats less than six weeks ahead of midterm elections, where both chambers of Congress could hang in the balance.
—This story has been updated with information about the Senate Judiciary Committee’s scheduled vote.
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