Polarized nation riveted by dueling testimony from Kavanaugh, Ford

WASHINGTON — A transfixed nation watched intently Thursday as Christine Blasey Ford testified that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago — a claim he denied in a blistering admonishment of the Senate.

“I believed he was going to rape me,” Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a shaky, but firm voice.

But Kavanaugh was equally convincing as he choked up with tears in denying the sexual assault and charging that Democrats had ruined his family and his name in “a political hit” with last-minute allegations designed to scuttle his nomination.

“You have replaced ‘advice and consent’ with ‘search and destroy,’” Kavanaugh told the committee, whose members sat silent as his voice broke with emotion and outrage.

The riveting, emotional hearing was held just weeks before a midterm election in a politically polarized nation. The outcome of the election could shift the balance of power in Congress, while Kavanaugh’s confirmation would bring a conservative shift to the high court.

With the Supreme Court vacancy at stake, and the country divided, the confirmation hearing and allegations of sexual assault took on the semblance of the 1991 drama between Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed on a narrow 52-48 vote.

President Donald Trump, who nominated Kavanaugh in July, watched the testimony during his flight on Air Force One from New York to Washington.

Kavanaugh told the committee he would “not be intimidated from withdrawing from the process.”

“You can defeat me in the final vote, but you won’t get me to quit,” a defiant Kavanaugh told Democrats on the panel.

Ford: ‘100 percent’ certain

Ford, a university research psychologist, told the committee that she was “100 percent” certain that a teenaged Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed during a house party, tried to take her clothes off and clasped his hand over her mouth when she tried to yell for help.

Ford suffered academic problems after the attack. She said she told a marriage counselor and her husband about the incident in 2012 when anxiety and emotional problems led her to seek a second front door to a home during a remodel, a request that left those close to her baffled.

The request was due to her escape from the sexual attack in a suburban Maryland home three decades ago.

Ford said she remains affected by the attack, and there are aspects of it that she will never forget.

When questioned about those memories, Ford told the panel that she remembers Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, “laughing.”

“Uproarious laughter,” she recalled.

Ford said the two boys were “having fun at my expense.” She said they both were laughing at each other, while she was “underneath one of them,” afraid for her life.

Republicans on the committee, all white men, elected to hire a prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell of Arizona, to question Ford on the details of the assault. She also began to quiz Kavanaugh, but the Republican lawmakers seized the dias to denounce Democrats on the panel.

Mitchell probed Ford about the cost of a polygraph test, and whether her allegations were politically motivated. She said she came forward out of a civic duty, and wanted her allegation to remain confidential.

She also contacted a Washington Post tip line. Ford said she went public when reporters started showing up at her California home, and at Palo Alto University where they posed questions about her allegation to her in front of students.

Ford said she has since received death threats and her family has been forced to move.

Kavanaugh: Reputation ruined

Kavanaugh said the allegation by Ford, and those made by Yale University classmate Deborah Ramirez and another claim of sexual misconduct during high school by Julie Swetnick, have ruined his family.

“It’s been harmful to me and my family, the Supreme Court and the country,” a visually shaken Kavanaugh said.

He denied the claims made by the other two women, which surfaced in recent days.

Kavanaugh, an appellate court judge, was combative with Democrats, sparring with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., over high school yearbook boasts of drinking and sexual conquests.

“I’m trying to get a straight answer from you under oath,” Leahy said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged Kavanaugh to ask White House counsel Don McGahn, sitting in the front row of the audience, to stop the hearing and call for an FBI investigation to remove all doubt.

The request prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the committee, to explode: “We are not suspending this hearing.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called the allegations a Democratic-led attack and the “most unethical sham” in his long tenure in politics.

But that was followed by questioning by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., about yearbook references to vomiting, flatulence and Delaware beach parties.

During the hearing, Kavanaugh admitted a passion for beer, but denied he had blacked out or acted aggressively with women when inebriated, a common thread in all of the allegations leveled by those who have come forward with accusations.

Following the hearing, reaction by lawmakers split along party lines.

“She gave powerful testimony. It was courageous for her to come forward,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said of Ford. “You could see that vulnerability in that testimony.”

Cortez Masto charged that Senate Republicans have ignored calls for a thorough background investigation, and with the backdrop of midterm elections, are trying to “fast-track this nomination and get it through as fast as possible.”

“I think it’s time to vote,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. He said every day the nomination remains open leaves it vulnerable to “these scurrilous” allegations.

The hearing was held in a cramped room in a Senate building. The second floor, where the hearing was held, was cleared of public traffic. Outside the building, protesters gathered hours before the showdown was held.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.