I just heard the news that Christine Blasey Ford will not testify on Monday until there is an FBI Investigation into the alleged sexual assault case against Brett Kavanaugh. And, I take my hat off to her!
In a letter addressed to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, Ford’s lawyer Lisa Banks notes “that despite receiving a ‘stunning amount of support from her community,’ Ford has also ‘been the threat of vicious harassment and even death threats’ and has been forced to leave her home.”
“We would welcome the opportunity to talk with you and Ranking Member Member Feinstein to discuss reasonable steps as to how Dr. Ford can cooperate while also taking care of her own health and security.”
I couldn’t agree more. The way I see it, Dr. Ford has been traumatized enough by this incident. She said she has thought about it for years. She was worried Kavanaugh might inadvertently kill her when he put his hand over her mouth to silence her. She said it was affecting her 2002 marriage, which is why she and her husband discussed it in couples therapy in 2012. On the advice of her lawyers, she took and passed a voluntary polygraph test administered by a former FBI agent in early August attesting to her truthfulness about this attack.
Clearly, Dr. Ford wrote the letter about Kavanaugh to her Congresswoman because she felt she needed to expose Kavanaugh’s character before he was confirmed as a member of the Supreme Court!
As far as I am concerned, Dr. Ford has made the ultimate sacrifice. Somehow, against her wishes, information was leaked that enabled reporters to find out who she is. Before she outed herself, a “BuzzFeed reporter came to her house, and tried to speak to her as she was leaving a classroom where she teaches graduate students. Another reporter called her colleagues to ask about her.”
And, ever since she identified herself, Republicans and right-wing press have condemned her, questioned the motives of Democrats in presenting this information, and turned what should have been a serious investigation into a circus.
Before, I received the news that Dr. Ford wouldn’t testify until the FBI investigates, I already had started writing this diary listing the 10 reasons (and there are many more) why I felt she shouldn’t testify.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley and House Majority Leader McConnell have no interest in learning the truth: They only want to ram this SCOTUS nomination through!
1. First, despite the severity of the allegations, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley’s first statement was that he wouldn’t postpone the Judiciary panel vote he had planned for this Thursday to advance the nomination. It is clear that he is not interested in seeking the truth. Rather he’s only interested in pushing this nomination through.
2. Second, within two hours of the allegations being made, Grassley released a letter from 65 women who said they knew Kavanaugh when he attended high school from 1979 to 1983 at George Town Prep, and he “treated women with honor and respect.” The question is why Grassley could produce this letter so quickly unless he knew that this assault case was an issue. Also, I have found no evidence this list has been verified.
3. Next, “with GOP support eroding for plunging ahead without openly examining the allegations, Grassley suggested the committee would conduct telephone interviews with the candidates... winning plaudits from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for planning to handle the episode ‘by the book.’ (Democrats rejected that plan, saying the seriousness of the charges merited a full FBI investigation.)”
4. Then “Grassley said his panel would hold a hearing next Monday with both Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford...Yet, just hours earlier, top Republicans had shown no interest in a theatrical spectacle that would thrust Kavanaugh and Ford before television cameras with each offering public— and no doubt conflicting — versions of what did or didn’t happen at a high school party in the early 1980s.”
5. At a news conference earlier today, McConnell was trying to push this inquisition through without any pretense that he believes in justice. The reality was that McConnell didn’t have the votes to move the nomination ahead, and he was trying to muscle Dr. Ford into submission. “Christine Blasey Ford has the option of privately testifying before a Senate panel next week about an allegation of sexual misconduct she has leveled against President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, McConnell said. “She can do it privately if she prefers, or publicly if she prefers. Monday is her opportunity.”
Republican bias against Blasey Ford, and/or Democrats (and pro Kavanaugh sentiments).
6. On Monday, “Sen. Orrin Hatch said that the woman alleging Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were in high school must be ‘mistaken’ and that even if the accusation is true, Kavanaugh is a ‘good man’ and senators should judge who he is now.”
7. President Trump, has said, “I feel so badly for Kavanaugh that he’s going through this, to be honest with you, this is not a man that deserves this...I feel “terribly” for him, his wife “and for his beautiful young daughters.”
8. And, then there’s the fact that the 11 Republicans on the committee are all men, and they can’t seem to make up their minds how they want to question Ford. One strategy was to have female congressional aides question her. Yet, number two Senate Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said earlier today that they were considering hiring an outside counsel to question Ford, yet if outside attorneys were hired, Cornyn said senators could still ask questions.
9. Cronyn was one of the few Republicans who openly questioned Ford’s version of events. “We just don’t know what happened 36 years ago,” he said. “There are gaps in her memory. She doesn’t know how she got there, when it was and so that would logically be something where she would get questions.” (This is obviously a strategy point because Linda Sanchez said exactly the same thing tonight on the Chris Hayes show.)
10. And, then there is the Rupert Murdock bile from The Wall Street Journal. In three different opinion pieces, the Journal’s editorial board called the accusation a “political ambush,” likened it to the Salem Witch Trials, and said that “no one knows what went on in that Maryland bedroom at that party—or if Mr. Kavanaugh was even there.”
“The good news is that Democrats have pushed back on the hearing. All 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter on Tuesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray and White House counsel Don McGahn arguing that the FBI should conduct an investigation prior to a hearing.
"The Committee should have the completed report before any hearing occurs and we ask that you take immediate steps to make sure that we have the FBI's report before we proceed," the senators wrote.”
As far as I am concerned, unless the FBI investigates the alleged sexual assault case against Brett Kavanaugh, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford doesn’t need to testify. Her voice has been heard loudly and clearly throughout this country, and she is my hero!!!