The timing of the revelation — before the US mid-term elections — has raised suspicions about the motive and genuineness of Blasey Ford’s allegations.
New Delhi: Newspapers in the United States are abuzz with the testimonies of Dr Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, which were delivered in an emotionally explosive hearing Thursday night, in a case of sexual assault that has gripped the nation and the world at large.
Kavanaugh — President Donald Trump’s second nominee to the Supreme Court — was on the cusp of claiming the seat when allegations of sexual assault emerged. The survivor, Blasey Ford, revealed in her testimony that on a summer night in 1982, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, ground his genitals against her, and muffled her screams as his close friend Mark Judge watched and laughed “maniacally”.
“Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter,” she said before the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to her statement, she managed to flee the house before further damage could be done.
Two other women have come out with accusations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, which he has categorically denied. In his testimony, he stated that to begin with, he wasn’t even at the house Blasey Ford referred to.
The timing of the revelation — before the US mid-term elections, and in the context of today’s #MeToo movement — has raised suspicions about the motive and genuineness of Blasey Ford’s allegations, which have since found their place at the intersection of gender justice and politics in America.
Here’s why this case has once again pitted Republicans against Democrats, and why the Senate committee’s vote could change the face of the 2020 presidential elections.
Also read: Kavanaugh inquiry: What Christine Blasey Ford revealed during US senate hearing
The case for Blasey Ford
A professor of psychology at Palo Alto University in California, Blasey Ford’s testimony was painfully delivered; her trauma visible. She — steadily and with “100 per cent” certainty — recalled she was at a gathering in a house in Montgomery County, where Kavanaugh and at least three others were present. She recalled him having assaulted her in the bedroom, and breaking free when Mark Judge pounced on both of them on the bed.
“I believed he was going to rape me,” she said. “It was hard for me to breathe and I thought that Brett was going to accidentally kill me.”
To corroborate her statements, Blasey Ford supplied the Senate committee with her therapist’s notes, which according to The Washington Post, did not mention Kavanaugh’s name, but said she reported that she was attacked by students from “an elitist boys’ school” who went on to become “highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington”.
Her husband, Russell Ford, has also supported her statements, saying his wife named Kavanaugh in 2012. She does not, however, remember how she got to the house, or how she went back home, only that she was “relieved” to know she had escaped and the two didn’t come after her.
Also read: The Indian Brett Kavanaugh who cannot be named
Brett Kavanaugh’s defence
Kavanaugh’s defence was carefully worded — he didn’t deny that Blasey Ford was assaulted, just that he didn’t assault her or anyone else. “I categorically and unequivocally deny the (accusations) by Dr Ford. This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fuelled by apparent pent up anger against President Trump and the 2016 election,” he said, alleging that Blasey Ford’s accusation was a ploy for “revenge on behalf of the Clintons”.
Outraged and equally emotional, Kavanaugh’s testimony of innocence moved the Republicans on the bench, with Senator Lindsey Graham accusing the Democrats of “destroy(ing) this man’s life, holding this seat open, and hope(ing) you win in 2020”.
An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal bats for Kavanaugh, saying: “The female friend Ms. Ford says was at the home the night of the assault says she wasn’t there. The number of people she says were there has varied from four to five and perhaps more, but every potential witness she has cited by name says he or she doesn’t recall the party.”
Republicans vs Democrats
What becomes clear in the aftermath of the two testimonies is that they cannot be reconciled — both Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh have staunchly stood by their own claims, with little concrete evidence to salvage the gaps in between. The Democrats are siding with her, the Republicans with him, as did President Trump, who immediately tweeted:
Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018
The implications of the vote could have a lasting impact on who occupies the state houses, the US House of Representatives and the Senate in the mid-term polls, which are due in November.
There is no way to determine which way the Senate will vote, but what is certain is that this moment will remain a milestone in the Trump administration.
If the FBI is competent enough to be responsible for counter intelligence, dealing with terrorism, organised crime, they will get to the bottom of this in a week. For that matter, why give them only one week ? President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court was kept on ice for a year. Politics, partisanship, winning elections are all part of democracy. However, there is a point that should not be crossed. No one who watched Dr Christine Ford’s testimony would doubt the truth of her charge. Even President Trump, likely after getting feedback about how Americans viewed her as a witness, said she was credible, compelling, a good woman.