Now underway, Judge Brett Kavanaugh and professor Christine Blasey Ford face questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. Their testimonies will draw into sharp relief the complicated nexus of politics and the #MeToo movement.
The stakes are high: a lifetime appointment to the swing seat on the Supreme Court. And with just 40 days until the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats and Republicans in Congress know that women will be watching, both as voters and as candidates.
The hearing kicked off with statements from Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Followed by opening statements from Ford and Kavanaugh, lawmakers on the dais will alternate questioning
The Republicans are expected to continue to yield their time to their outside counsel, Arizona attorney and former sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell.
Ford and Kavanaugh won’t be face-to-face during the testimony.
In the time since Ford’s story was made public, two other women have also come forward with allegations. Kavanaugh has swiftly and repeatedly denied allegations through Wednesday afternoon.
Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied each allegation, most publicly in an interview on Fox News Monday night.
Follow along with ABC News as the high stakes hearing unfolds.
After coming forward, Ford contended with questions of the accuracy of her memory, and if this could be a case of mistaken identity.
When asked directly by Feinstein, “What you are telling us is this could not be a case of mistaken identity?”
Ford asserted: “Absolutely not.”
Sen. Feinstein in her questions to Ford asked the college professor to describe why she wanted to keep her claims out of the public sphere and initially and what prompted that change.
Her first question: “Why have you held it to yourself all these years?”
Followed by: “Can you tell us, is there any other way this has affected your life?”
“The primary impact was in the initial four years after the event,” Ford responded. “I struggled academically. I struggled very much in Chapel Hill and in college when I was 17 and went off to college, I had a very hard time, more so than others, forming new friendships, especially friendships with boys, and I had academic problems.”
The stage now belongs to former sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, who is tasked with questioning Ford on behalf of the Republicans.
“I just wanted to tell you the first thing that struck me from your statement this morning was that you were terrified, and I just wanted to let you know I’m very sorry,” she began.
Her first question: “Are those three comments accurate?”
She’s referring to text messages sent on July 6 and July 10 over Whatsapp.
“Sexual assault victims should be able to decide for themselves when and whether their private experience is made public,” Ford said.
As she makes public the most traumatic moment of her life, you could hear a pin drop in the hearing room.
Senators – in particular, Republicans – are listening intently to Ford. Senators Ben Sasse and Mike Lee are pitched forward on the edge of their seats.
Sasse looks particularly emotional, with a furrowed brow and sometimes squinting.
Sen. Orrin Hatch visibly cringed when the heated details of the assault were recounted.
Sen. Jeff Flake is sitting backhand on chin – listening intently.
This isn’t your average hearing where members are doing other things. They are listening to every word.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar nodded her head when the awful details were recounted.
“Mr. Kavanaugh’s confirmation was virtually certain, persons painted him as a champion of women’s rights and empowerment,” Ford said, taking a brief pause before she continued. “And I believed that if I came forward, my single voice would be drowned out by a chorus of powerful supporters.”
ABC News’ Trish Turner reports from inside the hearing room.
For the first time, a packed hearing room on Capitol Hill, and the rest of the country heard Ford deliver the intimate details of the sexual assault she alleges Kavanaugh committed.
“I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me,” she began. “He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me. I yelled, hoping someone downstairs might hear me, and tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy. Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes.”
“I believed he was going to rape me,” Ford continued. “I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. This is what terrified me the most and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me.”
“Brett’s assault on me drastically altered my life. For a very long time, I was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone the details.”
Ford took the stand and began to lay out for lawmakers the world she came of age in: a bucolic suburban and upper middle-class Maryland setting.
“It is where I met Brett Kavanaugh”, she said.
As she continued, her voice trembling, Ford continued: “I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t remember as much as I would like to. But the details about that night that bring me here today are ones I will never forget. They have been seared into my memory and have haunted me episodically as an adult.”
Invoking the rallying cry of the #MeToo movement, Feinstein offered a sharp rebuke of Grassley’s criticism of her handling of Ford’s sexual assault allegation, saying any reticence to push forward initially was “because [of] how women are treated in the United States.”
The ranking Democrat on the committee devoted a significant portion of her remarks to underscore the epidemic of sexual violence in this country.
“Sexual violence is a serious problem, and one that largely goes unseen,” she said.
“There’s been a great deal of public discussion about the #MeToo movement today versus the year of the woman almost 27 years ago,” she continued. “But while young women are standing up and saying no more, our institutions have not progressed in how they treat women who come forward. Too often, women’s memories and credibility come under assault. In essence, they are put on trial and forced to defend themselves and often revictimized in the process. ”
Grassley delivered his opening remarks, spending most of his time recounting the process that culminated in the hearing, criticizing Feinstein for her handling of the allegation of sexual assault by Ford “at the 11th hour.”
He apologized for the treatment Ford and Kavanaugh have both endured since the allegation emerged on Sept. 16.
“Both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh have been through a terrible couple weeks,” Grassley said in his opening remarks. “They and their families have received vile threats. What they have endured ought to be considered by all of us as unacceptable and a poor reflection on the state of civility in our democracy. So I want to apologize to you both for the way you’ve been treated.”
“Now it’s up to the Senate to assess their credibility,” he added. “Which brings us to this very time … The testimony we will hear today concerns allegations of sexual assault, very serious allegations. This is an incredibly complex and sensitive subject to discuss and it’s not an easy one to discuss. That is why the senators on this side of the Diaz believe that an expert who has training in interviewing victims of sexual assault and investigating sexual assault allegations should be asking questions. This will be a stark contrast to the grandstanding and chaos that we saw from the other side during the previous four days in this hearing process.”
The hearing that could decide the fate of the Supreme Court is now underway.
Chairman Grassley opened the hearing with remarks, to be followed by ranking member Feinstein.
With all eyes on Kavanaugh and his accuser, their opening statements will begin shortly.
Alyssa Milano is sitting mid-hearing room, as the guest of Sen. Feinstein, according to the actress.
She tells ABC News she’s traveled from Los Angeles to support Dr. Ford.
“I felt like I needed to be here to show my solidarity for Dr. Ford,” she said. “On this day that will be very difficult for her.”
She remembers when she was “almost 20” watching the Anita Hill hearings.
“I watched the hearings,” she recounts. “I remember thinking what a strong, amazing, solid woman she was to come forward. What a service she was doing for all women.”
She had “very active parents politically,” she adds.
“We are in a different time. Woman are standing together now in solidarity.”
– ABC News’ Trish Turner reports from inside the Dirksen hearing room.
The FiveThirtyEight team be watching the hearing today, of course.
We’ll also be keeping an eye on what is happening online, what other officials are saying and more. We’ll be looking at how all this affects Kavanaugh’s chances of confirmation, and how Kavanaugh’s confirmation fits into the broader cultural moment.
In short, there’s a lot going on. So to keep everything straight, here are some of the main things to watch for.
– Perry Bacon Jr., from ABC News’ partner FiveThirtyEight, REPORTS.
“She’s ready,” Samantha Guerry said on “Good Morning America” Thursday of high school classmate Christine Blasey Ford, who’s scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“She’s been spending time alone getting centered and clearing her thoughts but when she shows up today, she will be completely cooperative and ready to tell her truth,” Guerry told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos.
– ABC News’ Kendall Karson. For more, CLICK HERE.
It will be a showdown that could define a generation – in politics and well beyond.
When Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning, the issues probed and how the witnesses and their questioners come across could have lasting repercussions for all three branches of government.
At stake is a lifetime appointment to the swing seat on the Supreme Court.
The stakes are even broader for a nation that has grappled with a reassessment of the realities of sexual harassment over the past year.
READ MORE via ABC News’ Rick Klein.
Ahead of her testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ford has remained mostly a two-dimensional figure, defined mainly by her resume and her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school in the early 1980s.
As the country awaited the chance to hear from Ford herself, here’s more of her background.
ABC News’ Ali Rogin WRITES.
The highly anticipated hearing is the culmination of days-long debates in Washington and nationally about the implications of Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both high schoolers in suburban Maryland.
The 21 committee members – 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats – are expected to press both Ford and Kavanaugh for details. Republicans are expected to yield their time to Rachel Mitchell, a prosecutor from Arizona, to question Ford.
Here’s what you need to know about key members of the committee.
– ABC News’ Max Hamid. For more, CLICK HERE.
Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump‘s nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, is a longtime judge on the federal appeals court often referred to as the second-highest court in the land.
Kavanaugh has served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals since 2006, three years after George W. Bush nominated him to the post. At 53, Kavanaugh, if confirmed, could reasonably expect to serve on the Supreme Court well into the middle of the century — no doubt an attractive prospect to President Trump, who intentionally targeted young candidates for the posting, sources told ABC News.
ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman REPORTS.
In his prepared opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a day before Thursday’s expected dramatic showdown with one of his accusers, Brett Kavanaugh says “this effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out.”
The Republican-controlled committee sent out Kavanaugh’s statement as new allegations against Kavanaugh rocked the nation’s capital and raised new questions about the fate of his nomination.
Read the entire statement HERE.
President Donald Trump again strongly defended his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday, rejecting any suggestion he order a new FBI investigation into the multiple sexual assault and misconduct allegations against him, including an explosive new allegation from a third accuser.
“Here there was nothing to investigate,” Trump said in New York, at only his second solo news conference in the U.S. “They didn’t know location, year. They didn’t know anything,” he said, apparently referring to the first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted him when they were both in high school. Kavanaugh has adamantly denied the accusation.
– ABC News’ Meridith McGraw. For more, CLICK HERE.
On Thursday, Brett Kavanaugh and one of the women who accused him of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, will testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee just 24 hours before the committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination.
ABC’s Political Director Rick Klein and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran sat down this week on ABC News’ “Powerhouse Politics” to discuss the history and controversy surrounding Kavanaugh’s nomination and what it could mean for Republicans merely 41 days ahead of the midterms.
The attorney for the second woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct expressed his disapproval of how President Trump has mocked her account, adding that his client is certain about the alleged encounter.
“I found that comment by the president to be pretty disgusting and pretty hurtful,” John Clune, attorney for accuser Deborah Ramirez, told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” Wednesday.
He added: “She believes wholeheartedly that it was Mr. Kavanaugh.”
READ MORE via ABC News’ Nataly Pak.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley reversed course just hours after he said he would not reveal the name of the prosecutor hired by the GOP to question the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of assault and released a statement saying Rachel Mitchell would be tasked with the job.
Mitchell, a career prosecutor from Maricopa County, Arizona, will be interviewing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students in suburban Maryland.
Kavanaugh has strenuously denied the claims, saying he was not even present at the party she alleges the assault took place.
ABC News’ Mark Osborne WRITES.
While her party’s leaders are plowing ahead with their support for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justice nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the key swing votes, wants the sexual assault allegation to be taken seriously.
“It’s very important to take allegations of those who have come forward, to take them seriously and I think we need to go into this hearing with the view that we will listen to Dr. Ford’s story, we will listen to Judge Kavanaugh’s response and then we will weigh what we have heard,” the Alaska Republican told a massive scrum of reporters. “I think it’s important to have the hearing, to get this out on the record and then to move on from there.”
READ MORE via ABC News’ Mary Bruce, Ali Rogin and Mariam Khan.
The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy and the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to replace him on the nation’s highest court was supposed to calm jittery Republican nerves about a disengaged base.
The worry: that Republican voters would stay home this November in what promises to be a critical midterm election that could see control of both the U.S. House and Senate slip from GOP control.
– ABC News’ John Verhovek. For more, CLICK HERE.
Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s embattled Supreme Court nominee, spoke out Monday in an extraordinary and emotional interview with Fox News, saying, “I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone” and insisting, “I’m not going anywhere.”
The interview, which aired Monday evening, followed a day-long effort by President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans to save Kavanaugh’s nomination after a second accuser’s story surfaced in The New Yorker on Sunday. A former Yale University classmate, Deborah Ramirez, claims Kavanaugh exposed himself at a dorm party and “thrust his penis in her face.”
READ MORE via ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett.
Comedians mocked Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Monday after he discussed his virginity and claimed a decades-old social calendar would help to exonerate him from sexual assault allegations.
“He claims he kept calendars detailing his social engagements from 1982 that will help to exonerate him,” Jimmy Kimmel said on “Live” Monday. “What 17-year-old keeps calendars of his social engagements? No wonder he was a virgin!”
Kavanaugh defended himself in an emotional interview on Monday after a second woman accused him of sexual misconduct over the weekend.
– ABC News’ Karma Allen. For more, CLICK HERE.
