Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the Palo Alto professor accusing him of sexual assault will testify before the Senate in a public hearing Monday, setting up perhaps the highest-stakes confrontation of the #MeToo era.
The decision by Christine Blasey Ford to tell her story in public capped a momentous day in Washington, as President Trump said he was open to delaying a confirmation vote and Republicans struggled over how to respond.
Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University who says Kavanaugh groped her, pressed her down, and put his hand over her mouth at a high school party more than 30 years ago, will testify about her experience, her lawyer Deb Katz said in an interview on CNN.
Katz, a prominent lawyer who has represented other women coming forward with accusations of sexual misconduct, said that Blasey Ford believes the attack was “attempted rape.”
“She believes that but for his inebriation and his inability to take her clothes off, he would have raped her,” Katz said.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, President Trump said he was open to halting the confirmation vote to hear Blasey Ford’s story.
“I wish the Democrats could have done this a lot sooner,” he told reporters, “but with all of that being said, we want to go through the process… and hear everybody out.”
“If it takes a little delay it’ll take a little delay,” he added. He said he hadn’t spoken with Kavanaugh since Blasey Ford went public. But when asked if Kavanaugh should withdraw from consideration for the Court, he replied, “what a ridiculous question.”
Kavanaugh, who has strongly denied the accusation, is also willing to return to the Senate to testify, the White House said.
Blasey Ford stepping forward with her identity this weekend injected new uncertainty in a nomination that had seemed last week like an almost foregone conclusion. Now, Republicans don’t appear to have the votes to move Kavanaugh’s nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee until Blasey Ford testifies — Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a GOP member of the committee, said he wanted to hear from her before he voted.
Republican staffers were scheduled to talk to Kavanaugh in a phone call Monday to get his side of the story — but Democrats on the committee declined to join in. The 10 Democratic senators on the committee, including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, wrote in a letter Monday that the nomination should be put on hold until the FBI conducts an investigation into Blasey Ford’s story.
“All Senators, regardless of party, should insist the FBI perform its due diligence and fully investigate the allegations as part of its review of Judge Kavanaugh’s background,” they wrote. “Once the FBI has completed its independent work, we hope that we can work together in a bipartisan manner to decide on next steps.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told reporters he spoke with Kavanaugh over the phone and the judge denied ever being at the party Blasey Ford described. “There’s some question whether she’s mixed up,” Hatch said.
In addition, more than 200 alumnae of Blasey Ford’s Bethesda, Maryland, all-girls high school signed an open letter declaring their support for her on Monday. The letter follows another signed by 65 women who knew Kavanaugh in high school saying that they never saw him mistreat women.
The hearing Monday is sure to spur partisan tensions, with Democrats already voicing support for Blasey Ford and Republicans saying they believe Kavanaugh.
“We are burning, we are fuming about this on the Republican side,” said Sue Caro, the former Alameda County Republican Party chairwoman. “We don’t see any other evidence that Brett Kavanaugh has ever behaved in any way along these lines — and the fact it was brought up so late, with no corroboration, with denials all around, is wrong.”
Still, she predicted, GOP senators “won’t let this go Antia Hill.” Instead of focusing on destroying Blasey Ford’s character, they’re more likely to try to get the facts and move on quickly to vote for confirmation, Caro said.
After all, a feminist backlash from the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee’s treatment of Hill in 1991 helped fuel Democratic gains in elections the following year. “Republicans,” Caro said, “learned a lot from that.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
