Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stood before a gathering of evangelical conservatives last week and told them to "keep the faith." In the "very near future," he said, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh would be sitting on the Supreme Court.
"We're going to plow through it and do our job,” McConnell promised. Donald Trump joined in with personal attacks on Kavanaugh accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, saying he had "no doubt" that if the sexual assault Kavanaugh perpetrated was "as bad as she says," it would have been reported to the FBI. At the time, Republicans were still trying to intimidate Dr. Blasey Ford out of testifying, promising a swift hearing by Monday followed by accelerated committee and floor votes.
But those plans were thwarted when the lawyers for Dr. Blasey Ford called their bluff, saying Sunday their client was willing to testify despite the fact that Senate Republicans had met almost none of her requests—including that she testify after Kavanaugh, that an FBI investigation be conducted, and that other witnesses be called, including Kavanaugh drinking buddy Mark Judge specifically.
By Monday, McConnell, still bullying from his bully pulpit, reaffirmed on the Senate floor: "Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed."
But whatever McConnell had in mind, it never included the week-long FBI investigation that's now been ordered by the White House. He and Trump got backed into the corner by the pitch-perfect testimony of a sexual assault survivor who came to their turf Thursday, dispensed with their games, and spoke from her heart about a horrific memory that fundamentally altered the course of her life.
Right from the start, Dr. Blasey Ford was a vision of bravery, poise, candor, and relatability, beginning with admitting in the first seconds of her opening statement that she was "terrified" to be testifying. When she was quizzed by the GOP's hired female gun about when she had originally sought to hire a lawyer, Dr. Blasey Ford replied that her "beach friends" had advised it. When asked how she ultimately chose her attorneys, she described sitting in her car in a Walgreens parking lot, interviewing lawyers out of earshot of her parents with whom she was staying and "trying to figure out how the whole system works" of picking counsel. When asked if she spoke to her parents about what was going on, Blasey Ford exclaimed, "Definitely not," reminding us all that no matter how old we are, we really never stop worrying what our parents might think about the direction of our lives.
Ultimately, Blasey Ford was so likable, accessible, and forthcoming she left Washington's attack dogs with no avenue for attack. From her expert explanation of how the "hippocampus" stores trauma memories to her searing description of the "uproarious laughter" shared by Kavanaugh and his pal Judge while she was pinned beneath them, Dr. Blasey Ford was at once the accomplished psychology scholar she's become and the frightened teenager who would never be same.
Kavanaugh, by comparison, delivered a privileged and pitiful screed that successfully channeled the outrage of Trump's aggrieved base, but also unmasked him as an unbalanced partisan warrior. He yelled, whimpered, and raged about his damaged reputation and the Supreme Court seat he clearly felt entitled to but sensed was slipping through his fingers. The lives of both him and Dr. Blasey Ford had undoubtedly been upended by the entire episode, but while she soldiered on in grace, he presented as bitter, bellicose and even petty. In short, Kavanaugh was a vision of juris imprudence that the American Bar Association (ABA)—whose "gold standard" imprimatur of him was routinely cited at the hearing—could not ignore.
Shortly before midnight on Thursday, the ABA issued a statement urging an FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh. Proceeding without doing so, ABA president Robert Carlson wrote, would "negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court."
That's when the entire Republican charade that they could just go about business as usual and push Kavanaugh through as if America wasn't watching fell apart. In fact, the GOP's insistence that they could just do whatever they wanted despite Kavanaugh's collapsing institutional and public support backfired big time Friday morning. The combination of Blasey Ford's unimpeachable testimony combined with the Judiciary's Committee's scheduled vote inflamed activists who fanned out early Friday with renewed resolve to lobby lawmakers against the vote.
With emotions running high, two sexual assault survivors who had never previously told their stories stumbled upon Sen. Jeff Flake entering a Senate elevator. The moment that resulted was as painful to watch as it was gripping as it unfolded live on CNN for about five minutes. Blocking the elevator doors from closing, Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher identified themselves as survivors as they confronted Flake about the "yes" vote he had just announced he would be giving to Kavanaugh in committee.
“I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me,” an impassioned and tearful Gallagher said. “I didn’t tell anyone, and you’re telling all women that they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet, because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them.” As the two women made their emotionally raw appeals, Flake just stood there, nodding at times but seemingly unsure of what do other than simply absorb the moment.
This is the work of activism and protest. You sit for arrest and attend rallies and chant and then one day, in the blink of an eye, you find one golden opportunity to make a face-to-face appeal to someone who has the power to do something about it. Politicians almost never cop to being influenced by interactions like this, lest they invite more discomfort on themselves, but they absolutely can be touched and even rattled by them.
‘I was demanding a connection,’ Archila later told the Washington Post.
Mission accomplished. Although Flake still voted in committee to report Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate, he upended the GOP rush to confirm by demanding that the FBI reopen a limited, one-week background investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh before a final floor vote. Flake, who had huddled with several other wavering Senators earlier in the morning, had apparently lined up their support to put a pause on the nomination, if only for a week.
"This country is being ripped apart," he said to his fellow committee members as he explained why he wanted a take time out for an FBI inquiry. By day's end, the White House had finally ordered the very investigation Trump had been asserting for weeks the FBI never does. Imagine that.
The FBI will now go on the fact-finding mission that both Republicans and Kavanaugh sought to avoid at almost any cost to his reputation and the integrity of the Supreme Court. No outcome is guaranteed, but neither time nor the facts seem to be on Kavanaugh's side.
Late Friday, McConnell bragged on twitter that the Senate Judiciary Committee had advanced Kavanaugh's nomination. But make no mistake, he suffered a major blow.
Dr. Blasey Ford had come to Washington armed with her humanity and heroically pierced the GOP bubble of oblivion, even if only for a brief moment in time. On her way, she inspired an army of foot soldiers who will pick up where she left off.
As Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy presciently told Ford on Thursday, "Bravery is contagious."