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It's Values Voters Summit time, that gathering of far-right extremists now known as the Republican Party and Mitch McConnell is there, making big promises. "You've watched the fight. You've watched the tactics. But here's what I want to tell you: In the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court."
That would assume that McConnell knows he has the votes to get him on the court, which would mean he has secured Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). Or more likely, as Executive Director of Demand Justice Brian Fallon says "He is trying to bluff Dr. Blasey Ford out of testifying by acting to her like it's pointless."
From the beginning of this process, Republicans have been working hard to stop Ford from testifying. They scheduled a date for the hearing without even consulting with her attorney, setting an arbitrary and impossible deadline for the hearing on Monday and her testimony by 10 a.m. Friday, today. Dr. Ford's team effectively dismissed both deadlines by opening negotiations with the Judiciary Committee Thursday evening.
Now McConnell is sending a message not just to his base, but trying to tell Ford that she might as well not bother to show up because Kavanaugh's confirmation is a foregone conclusion. Because he knows that if this hearing goes forward, it's going to be a mess. Democrats are going to make an issue of whether Kavanaugh knew about or was involved in Ed Whelan's insane strategy of trying to pin the assault on Ford on one of Kavanaugh's old friends.
At this point, Republicans have essentially ceded the point that the assault did happen. They know how disastrous the optics of a hearing where her character and mental stability are questioned would be. So their only out was this mistaken identity gambit, allowing that the attack really happened. Their only real option now that that effort has collapsed is following Trump down in to the morass of victim-blaming.
McConnell might believe he has the votes now, before there's a hearing in which anything could happen, but none of it good for Kavanaugh's prospects for confirmation. So he's trying to scare Ford out of testifying so he can push this vote before his team has a chance to back out.