Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, squared off before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday for a high-stakes hearing during which both parties laid bear their emotions before a rapt nation.
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Kavanaugh and Ford offered contrasting testimony as to what occurred during a party on a summer night in Maryland in 1982, with Ford telling the 21-member panel — and riveted viewers — that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, an event she said has been seared into her memory for more than three decades and had a lasting impact on her life.
But Kavanaugh offered a fierce, fiery defense of himself, denying he ever sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, college, or ever.
Ultimately the decision of whether to confirm Kavanaugh to the country’s highest court will be up to the members of the Senate, a handful of which, still undecided, awaited testimony from the two parties before arriving at a conclusion. The Senate Judiciary Committee intends to hold a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination Friday.
Ford’s appearance before the committee was America’s first introduction to the woman who has remained out of the public eye in the more than 10 days since media reports about a letter from an unidentified woman began trickling out. Since speaking about the alleged sexual assault to the Washington Post, though, Ford has garnered support from across the country but also been the recipient of vitriolic threats from those who oppose her. Kavanaugh’s family has endured similar violent threats.
Ford appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee first and offered an emotional recounting of the events that she said occurred at a house in Maryland 36 years ago, when both she and Kavanaugh were in high school.
“Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense,” Ford said, referencing Kavanaugh and Mark Judge, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Georgetown Preparatory School.
The room remained silent as Ford told senators about how Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her, and tried to remove her clothing. Kavanaugh, she recalled, covered her mouth with his hands, which left her struggling to breathe and fearful he would accidentally kill her.
“I believed he was going to rape me,” Ford said.
Many Senate Democrats lauded Ford for deciding to testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying she was inspiring millions of Americans, men and women, who were watching.
“What you are doing is nothing short of heroic,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told Ford.
Deferring their questioning to Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor in Arizona, Republicans sought to address holes in Ford’s recollection of the encounter with Kavanaugh. Mitchell pressed Ford on how she returned home the night of the party, who was in attendance, and the specific timing of the sexual assault.
Additionally, she questioned who paid for a polygraph examination Ford underwent in August and how she was introduced to her lawyers, Debra Katz and Michael Bromwich, who are working pro bono.
During the duration of her testimony, Ford was asked by Democrats on three different occasions whether she was certain it was Kavanaugh who sexually assaulted her in 1982, and in each instance, she answered yes.
Kavanaugh, though, forcefully denied to the Senate Judiciary Committee ever being at the gathering described by Ford and categorically denied he sexually assaulted her.
“I swear today under oath before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge,” he said.
Kavanaugh also made clear his contempt for his confirmation process, noting that Senate Democrats, including several sitting before him, announced their opposition to his nomination from the outset and looked for ways to derail his nomination.
“This confirmation process has become a national disgrace,” Kavanaugh said during his opening statement to the committee. “The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process. But you have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy.”
Kavanaugh also lamented the damage done to him and his family in the days after Ford spoke out about the alleged sexual assault, saying he was ready to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee immediately to clear his name.
Instead, he said, while the committee negotiated the terms of the hearing with Ford’s team and Senate Democrats called for an FBI investigation, he and his family were dragged through the mud.
“In those 10 long days, as was predictable, and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations,” Kavanaugh said.
Despite the toll the confirmation process had, however, Kavanaugh vowed to see his nomination through.
“You may defeat me in the final vote, but you will never get me to quit,” he said.
While Senate Democrats’ questions to Ford focused on how the alleged sexual assault had impacted her life, they pressed Kavanaugh on his drinking habits in high school and at times focused on the insinuations of yearbook entries.
“I liked beer,” Kavanaugh told the committee. “I still like beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out and I never sexually assaulted anyone.”
Kavanaugh’s anger at the accusations, as well as the process he has endured since President Trump unveiled him as his pick in July, extended to other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, namely, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who delivered a blistering denunciation of his Democratic colleagues.
“Boy, you all want power,” Graham told the Democrats. “God, I hope you never get it. I hope the American people see through this sham that you knew about it and you held it. You had no intention of protecting Dr. Ford. None. She’s as much of a victim as you.”
The South Carolina senator accused Democrats of wanting to “destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020.”
Thursday’s hearing occurred after several days of negotiations between lawyers for Ford and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
During that time, two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegations.
“The Swetnick thing is a joke,” he said. “It’s a farce.”
While several senators remain undecided as to whether they will support Kavanaugh’s nomination, his testimony earned praise from Trump, who urged the Senate to hold its vote.
“Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting,” the president tweeted. “Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist.”
