Kavanaugh Open Thread: Hearing Set for Monday, But Will Accuser Show Up?
Ford has not responded to the invitation.
Hopefully today is a little calmer than yesterday when it comes to Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. We learned Monday evening that the Senate postponed his confirmation vote and scheduled a hearing on Monday with him and the woman who has accused him of sexual assault.
Except she hasn’t accepted the invitation yet.
Once again, if you come across anything, please leave it in the comment section.
Doubting Dianne?
Looks like Sen. Dianne Feinstein is unsure if Ford is truthful.
From colleague Connor Marley. Feinstein on Ford. Says Ford "is a woman that has been, I think, profoundly impacted, on this..I can't say that everything is truthful. I don't know."
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) September 18, 2018
Kavanaugh’s Classmate Won’t Testify
From Politico:
GOP senators are pressing ahead with a rare public hearing next week on Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh despite not yet getting her agreement to testify.
Another key witness in Ford’s decades-old allegation, Kavanaugh’s high school classmate Mark Judge, also declined to testify Tuesday. Judge, who Ford says was the third person in the room when Kavanaugh assaulted her, said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that “I have no more information to offer the committee and I do not wish to speak publicly regarding the incidents.”
Mark Judge thru counsel tells Sen Jud he has “no memory of this alleged (Blasey Ford) incident” and “I do not recall the party described in Dr Ford’s letter” and “I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr Ford describes”
— Trish Turner (@caphilltrish) September 18, 2018
Here’s the letter pic.twitter.com/YzhXwkbmSr
— Trish Turner (@caphilltrish) September 18, 2018
Trump Defends Kavanaugh
President Trump again defends Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against sexual assault allegation, but says confirmation process will be delayed to look into it. “We want to give everybody a chance to say what they have to say” https://t.co/LXL6s6ZBIN pic.twitter.com/hTGTxRtO2e
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 18, 2018
NEW: “I don’t think the FBI really should be involved because they don’t want to be involved … they say this is not really their thing,” Pres. Trump says about the sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh https://t.co/bT74vhwkXX pic.twitter.com/zR97vGa10T
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 18, 2018
Collins has Demands
I’m writing to the Chairman & RM of Judiciary Cmte respectfully recommending that at Monday’s hearing, counsel for Prof. Ford be allocated time to question Judge Kavanaugh & counsel for the Judge be granted equal time to question Prof. Ford, followed by questions from Senators.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) September 18, 2018
Such an approach would provide more continuity, elicit the most information & allow an in-depth examination of the allegations.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) September 18, 2018
Read my full letter to the Chairman & Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee here: https://t.co/WzOXlyPrAA pic.twitter.com/eALSEmPygN
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) September 18, 2018
Collins also confused as to why Ford hasn’t responded:
“That’s very puzzling to me. I have said from the beginning that these are very serious allegations and she deserves to be heard. She’s now being given an opportunity to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee and to answer questions and I really hope that she doesn’t pass up that opportunity,” Collins said to a group of reporters in the Dirksen Senate Office Building Tuesday morning.
Grassley Threatens to Cancel Monday Hearing
If the Senate does not hear from Christine Blasey Ford, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has threatened to cancel Monday’s hearing. From Fox News:
Grassley, R-Iowa, scheduled a hearing for Monday for Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford to answer questions from senators about the allegation. But Grassley said during a Tuesday radio interview that his office has reached out several times to Ford and her attorneys to discuss her allegation, but has heard nothing back.
“We have reached out to her in the last 36 hours three or four times by email and we have not heard from them, and it kind of raises the question, do they want to come to the public hearing or not?” Grassley said on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
Asked whether there would be a hearing if Ford did not agree to appear, Grassley suggested he couldn’t see a reason to hold one.
“What would be the purpose of the hearing if Dr. Ford doesn’t want to respond?” Grassley said.
White House Contacting Women in Kavanaugh’s Past
From CNN:
The plan, the officials said, will rely heavily on women who will attest to Kavanaugh’s good character — including from his teenage years, during which he is alleged to have sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford.
The White House has been contacting many of the 65 women who signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh that was released after an anonymous allegation of sexual assault surfaced — before Ford emerged this weekend to put a name and a face to her accusation — to see if they would be willing to publicly back him in the coming week. Many of those women, one official said, are prepared to publicly defend Kavanaugh.
Some of those women and other female surrogates will be out front this week attesting to his character. Already on Monday, women who worked with Kavanaugh in the administration of President George W. Bush began to release statements expressing their support for him as part of a campaign to defend the federal judge’s integrity using the hashtag #IStandWithBrett.
“I’ve known Judge Brett Kavanaugh for nearly 20 years,” wrote Sara Fagen, the former Bush White House political director. “I don’t believe he would ever harm any person, let alone assault a woman. These eleventh hour allegations as he was about to be confirmed to the Supreme Court reflect the sad state of American politics today. He’s a good man, a brilliant jurist, and he does not deserve to have his good name ruined because the base of the Democratic party doesn’t want a conservative on the Supreme Court.”
Hearing on Monday
Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford seemed eager to get in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to tell their stories. Fox News reported that Ford has not responded:
Much has been made of Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford’s invitation to testify before an open hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee next week — but it’s not set in stone yet she will actually show.
Fox News is told that the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday night reached out to Ford’s lawyers to invite her to Monday’s open hearing to discuss her allegation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but she has not responded yet.
Ford, a California-based professor, revealed her identity over the weekend in a Washington Post report. She said that Kavanaugh, while in high school, pinned her down, tried to remove her bathing suit and put his hand over her mouth when she attempted to scream. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation.
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