The hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday contained testimony that should be utterly disqualifying for any consideration of confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court—testimony that should, in fact, lead to impeachment of Kavanaugh in his current role. That testimony didn’t come from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. It came from Kavanaugh. Because his statements on Thursday afternoon didn’t just show a man who was emotional and angry. They showed a man who was completely embedded into a machine whose central purpose was attacking Democrats and creating a false narrative of conspiracy to fuel partisan rancor.
The structure of the hearing on Thursday was notable. Throughout the morning, as Dr. Ford testified, Republicans sat on their hands allowing a state prosecutor to talk to Ford rather than address her directly. While the five minute time periods may have seemed like a poor match for the meticulous approach taken by that prosecutor, leaving the impression that the Republican effort had been ineffective … it wasn’t. Because the point of the Republican approach was simple: Those watching the hearing never saw Ted Cruz, or Orrin Hatch, or John Cornyn or any of the others speaking to Dr. Ford. With the exception of a few words from Chuck Grassley at the opening of the hearing, not one Republican ever thanks Dr. Ford for coming forward, offered a word of support, or simply address her as a human being.
Republicans didn’t talk to Dr. Ford out of concern that viewers would think they were mean to her. They didn’t talk to her because they did not want to acknowledge her as a person acting through her own means and under her own volition.
And the moment that Brett Kavanaugh launched into his lengthy opening statement, the other half of the plan was clear. Kavanaugh didn’t just declare the statements by Ford “last-minute smears” and “obvious character assassination.” That might be expected from someone who thought themselves genuinely innocent and distraught over a difficult process and an unexpected accusation. Instead, Kavanaugh didn’t just fully join, but led, in the script the Republicans built for the afternoon. One that created a conspiracy on the part of Democrats and turned Dr. Ford into just another version of the “crisis actor.”
Kavanaugh: You have tried hard. You've given it your all. No one can question your effort. But your coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy my good name and destroy my family will not drive me out.
That declaration alone shows that Kavanaugh was completely on-board with the plan that unfolded through the afternoon. A plan that turned the argument into one where Brett Kavanaugh was the victim and Democrats were the rapists. And a plan that completed the dehumanizing of Christine Blasey Ford.
The Republican plot for Thursday’s hearings was all about dehumanizing Ford. About making her a pawn in a Democratic scheme designed to hurt Kavanaugh. That’s why Republicans trotted out questions about who had paid for Ford’s polygraph, and who had recommended attorneys. They did not want Christine Blasey Ford to be seen as an actual person in actual pain.
They followed the plot of Republican flagship InfoWars, treating Ford as an object to be manipulated, something they could take around as they turned the whole hearing into an attack on the Democratic Party. And Brett Kavanaugh wasn’t just right there with them, he was in on it at every step.
Just two weeks ago, Kavanaugh was in that same chamber for another hearing.
Kavanaugh: A good judge must be an umpire — a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy.
But on Thursday afternoon, Kavanaugh wasn’t an umpire. While he was angrily telling everyone about the role he played on his high school sports teams, he was also playing quarterback for Team Republicans as they generated a Grand Democratic Conspiracy to stop Kavanaugh. In the process he tossed aside any notion of neutrality and absolutely wedded himself to an us vs. them narrative that should, but his own words, be disqualifying for any judge at any level.
And by participating in this scheme, he completed the savaging of Dr. Ford in a way that simply denying her accusations would never have accomplished.
Throughout the morning, Democrats used their time with Dr. Ford to be supportive of Dr. Ford. Republicans used their time … to do anything other than acknowledge the humanity of Dr. Ford. It didn’t matter that the prosecutor brought in to attack minor points of Ford’s testimony was infective. So far as Republicans were concerned, they could have filled the room with radio static. Anything. So long as they didn’t have to show that Christine Blasey Ford was a real person.
Throughout the afternoon, Democrats used their time with Brett Kavanaugh to ask him about the events in question. Republicans used their time to acknowledge Kavanaugh, thank him for his service, grieve with him over the damage to his reputation—and blame it all on Democrats.
Republicans didn’t treat the Thursday hearing as he said, she said. They treated it as he said, it said. Where it was just a mouthpiece for a despicable smear. If their actions did nothing to get at the truth of the situation, that was by design. They were more interested in generating heat than light. And they succeeded.
Alex Jones may be gone from Twitter and YouTube. But his spirit lives on in the US Senate. Because what the Republicans did on Thursday was pure InfoWars—right down to the scripted outrage of Lindsey Graham which was clearly being kept on hold for any moment where Kavanaugh seemed to really be in trouble.