Republicans set up an ambush for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who’s accused Brett Kavanaugh of attempting to rape her when they were teenagers, but now those same Republicans seem to be forgetting that part of ambushing someone is keeping your plan secret. They’re already smearing her, which shows they’re lying when they say they’re ready to listen to her and take her seriously. And several Republicans have signaled strongly that they’ll support Kavanaugh almost no matter what.
Ford’s lawyers nailed it:
“While Dr. Ford’s life was being turned upside down, you and your staff scheduled a public hearing for her to testify at the same table as Judge Kavanaugh in front of two dozen U.S. Senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident,” the lawyers wrote to Mr. Grassley. The hearing “would include interrogation by senators who appear to have made up their minds that she is ‘mistaken’ and ‘mixed up.’”
Senate Republicans don’t just appear to have made up their minds that Ford is “mistaken” and “mixed up,” they’ve made up their minds that it doesn’t matter even if she is credible. “This has been a drive-by shooting when it comes to Kavanaugh. . . . I’ll listen to the lady, but we’re going to bring this to a close,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“We’re going to bring this to a close” kind of contradicts the idea that the plan is to listen to Ford in any meaningful way. The plan is to put on enough of a show of listening to her to avoid public condemnation, without doing anything dangerous like investigating Ford’s claims, or opening the door to hearing from more women who’ve been mistreated by Kavanaugh, or even revisiting Kavanaugh’s denials that he knew his judicial mentor, Alex Kozinski, was a serial sexual harasser.
Republican after Republican, right on up to Donald Trump, has made clear: their concern is for Kavanaugh, a wonderful man with an “unblemished record” who’s been hit by this “drive-by shooting.” They’re willing to pretend to listen to Christine Blasey Ford if she’ll show up on their schedule to their rigged hearing without any investigation having been done, but that’s as far as it goes.
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