WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans are forging ahead with plans for a Senate hearing they had hoped to avoid on a womans claims that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were high schoolers, hoping to salvage the judges endangered Supreme Court nomination with a risky, nationally televised showdown between him and his accuser.
Republicans reversed course and agreed to the hearing in the face of growing demands by GOP senators to hear directly from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, now a psychology professor in California. Their sworn testimony, certain to be conflicting and emotive, will offer a campaign season test of the political potency of a #MeToo movement that has already toppled prominent men from entertainment, government and journalism.
Now the whole nations trying to figure out something thats not really evident, said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. It is a political dialogue on a very, very painful subject for a lot of people.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said his panel would hold a hearing next Monday with both Kavanaugh and Ford to provide ample transparency and give these recent allegations a full airing.
Ford says that at a party when both were teenagers in the early 1980s, an intoxicated Kavanaugh trapped her in a bedroom, pinned her on a bed, tried to undress her and forced his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. She said she got away when a companion of Kavanaughs jumped on him.
Kavanaugh, 53, has vehemently denied the accusation. He said in a statement Monday that he wanted to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.
Shortly before Grassleys announcement, the senator said there would be private, telephone interviews of Kavanaugh and Ford conducted by committee staffers. Democrats refused to participate, saying the seriousness of the charges merited a full FBI investigation.
Republicans had also displayed no willingness to delay a Judiciary panel vote that Grassley had planned for this Thursday to advance the nomination, setting the stage for full Senate confirmation of Kavanaugh by months end, in time for the new Supreme Court session. Thursdays vote will not occur.
President Donald Trump telegraphed earlier Monday that that schedule might slow. He told reporters at the White House: If it takes a little delay, it will take a little delay.
If the Judiciary committees timetable slips, it would become increasingly difficult for Republicans to schedule a vote before midterm elections on Nov. 6 elections, when congressional control will be at stake.
With fragile GOP majorities of just 11-10 on the Judiciary committee and 51-49 in the full Senate, Republican leaders had little room for defectors without risking a humiliating defeat of Trumps nominee to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Among the GOP defectors was Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a Judiciary Committee member who has clashed bitterly with Trump and is retiring from the Senate. Flake said he told No. 2 Senate Republican leader John Cornyn of Texas on Sunday that if we didnt give her a chance to be heard, then I would vote no.
There was enormous pressure on GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, two moderates who have yet to announce their positions on Kavanaugh and arent on the Judiciary Committee.
Collins said that in a telephone conversation with Kavanaugh on Friday he was absolutely emphatic that the assault didnt occur. She said it would be disqualifying if Kavanaugh was lying. Murkowski said Fords story must be taken seriously. Neither Collins nor Murkowski faces re-election this fall.
Some Democrats raised questions about whether Grassleys planned hearings were sufficient.
