Chuck Grassley keeps pretending that he’s making things “easy” for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, but Republicans are doing everything they can to raise the stakes, build pressure, and paint Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a victim. It’s not just Grassley making it clear that if Dr. Ford doesn’t appear, they’re reading that as a free pass to speed Kavanaugh’s approval. It’s not just Lindsey Graham tapping his foot while admitting that he’s going to dismiss whatever Dr. Ford might say. It’s not even just Donald Trump raising the bar for her statements. Grassley’s staffers are lending a hand to remind Dr. Ford that there’s even more at stake.
Mike Davis is Chuck Grassley’s Chief Counsel for Nominations in the Senate. His very professional opinion is that Dr. Ford needs to take a seat, be questioned over an event that has caused her trauma over decades, do so on short notice, remember that there are enormous stakes that could affect the rights of all women for decades to come, and hey … keep in mind that this is testimony before a Senate committee. So if her testimony doesn’t align with Kavanaugh’s someone could go to jail. And when that’s done — they’ll confirm Kavanaugh anyway.
Between the time this article was started and now, Mike Davis protected his Twitter account. That’s because he doesn’t want everyone seeing the kind of pressure that Chuck Grassley’s office is really applying to Christine Blasey Ford. They’re determined that there will be no other witnesses. They’re determined that the pressure will be kept as high as possible. And they’ve already determined the outcome.
Sure. That’s fair. In the Fox News sense.
Compare the way Grassley and his staff are pushing Dr. Ford to events around Donald Trump. Despite months of preparation, Donald Trump’s legal team won’t let him take the stand because if he says something that’s in disagreement with other witnesses, Trump could be caught in what he and his legal team have called a “perjury trap.” But Republicans are trying to force Dr. Ford to appear by Monday—or else. For Trump, the standard is “no testimony, ever.” For Dr. Ford, the standard is “Testify now, about one of the most painful events of your life, or else.”
Appear, or the man who assaulted her gets a free pass to the Supreme Court. Appear, and be convincing and compelling, or women’s rights get an express ride back to 1973. Appear, and don’t mess up … or go to jail for the high crime of revealing to truth about the behavior of teenage boys and grown men in a culture that did, and does, value them above their female associates.