The nomination process for President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court justice nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, has been derailed by the stunning allegations of attempted rape issued by Professor Christine Blasey Ford against the judge from when they were in high school.
In a laughably insincere effort to make it appear as if the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee care about the allegations and the epidemic of sexual assault against women in our nation at all, Chairman Chuck Grassley has agreed to allow her to testify before the committee before inevitably ramming through the nomination anyway.
After a struggle over his attempt to dissuade Ford from testifying by imposing arbitrary deadlines — 2:30pm on Saturday deadline to agree to testify on Monday or no testimony at all — Grassley begrudgingly relented late last night.
Judge Kavanaugh I just granted another extension to Dr Ford to decide if she wants to proceed w the statement she made last week to testify to the senate She shld decide so we can move on I want to hear her. I hope u understand. It’s not my normal approach to b indecisive
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 22, 2018
Today, reporters revealed that Ford has indeed agreed to testify, though her lawyers rightfully accused the Committee of refusing to uphold their promise of a “fair and impartial investigation” into her allegations, which the Republican-strangled Committee obviously never had any intention of doing.
Christine Blasey Ford, via her lawyers, says she will testify next week. pic.twitter.com/4bVix1u7Ai
— emma brown (@emmersbrown) September 22, 2018
But the proximity to the mid-term elections and the poor optics of ignoring a woman’s sexual assault allegations in order to confirm a dangerous extremist to a lifetime position on our nation’s highest court has convinced the Republicans to at least give her a cursory chance to tell her tale — and if she can convince Republican Senators Murkowski and Collins to vote against Kavanaugh, Ford will have singlehandedly changed American history for the better.
