WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on Monday abruptly called Brett Kavanaugh and the woman accusing him of sexual assault decades ago to testify publicly next week, grudgingly setting up a dramatic showdown they hoped would prevent the allegation from sinking his nomination to the Supreme Court.
Senate leaders announced the move under pressure from fellow Republicans who wanted a fuller, open examination of the allegations from Christine Blasey Ford, a college professor in California. After initially suggesting a private conference call on the matter would suffice, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said his panel would hold a hearing next Monday “to provide ample transparency.”
The move forced Republicans to put off a planned committee vote for Thursday on Kavanaugh’s nomination. The delay makes it increasingly difficult for Kavanaugh to win approval by Oct. 1, when the new session of the Supreme Court begins. It also sets up a public, televised airing of sexual misconduct allegations, reminiscent of the seminal hearings against Clarence Thomas in 1991, that could derail Kavanaugh’s nomination altogether.
Just hours earlier, top Republicans had shown no interest in a theatrical spectacle that would thrust Kavanaugh and Ford before television cameras with each offering public — and no doubt conflicting and emotional — versions of what did or didn’t happen at a high school party in the early 1980s.
Instead, Grassley had said he’d seek telephone interviews with Kavanaugh and Ford, winning plaudits from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for planning to handle the episode “by the book.” Democrats rejected that plan, saying the seriousness of the charges merited a full FBI investigation.
Republicans had also displayed no willingness to delay a Judiciary panel vote Grassley had planned for this Thursday to advance the nomination. However, 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 committee’s timetable slips further, it would become increasingly difficult for Republicans to schedule a vote before the Nov. 6 elections, in which 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 Trump’s 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 didn’t 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 aren’t on the Judiciary Committee.
Collins said in a telephone conversation Friday with Kavanaugh that he was “absolutely emphatic” that the assault didn’t occur, and she said it would be “disqualifying” if Kavanaugh was lying. Murkowski said Ford’s story “must be taken seriously.” Neither Collins nor Murkowski faces re-election this fall.
With the #MeToo movement galvanizing liberal and female voters and already costing prominent men their jobs in government, journalism and entertainment, a hearing would offer a fuller vetting of Ford’s charges but also present a politically jarring prelude to November’s midterm elections.
Cornyn said Senate Republicans used a closed-door meeting Monday to agree to the public hearing.
Some Democrats raised questions about whether Grassley’s plan was sufficient.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, said in a statement Monday night that she was disappointed the FBI and White House “are failing to take even the most basic steps to investigate this matter” and the process was being rushed. She said President George H.W. Bush had asked the FBI to investigate Anita Hill’s allegations against Thomas.
Another Democrat on the panel, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said staging the hearing without the FBI investigation would make it a “sham.”
The Justice Department said in a statement late Monday that the accusation against Kavanaugh “does not involve any potential federal crime.” It said the FBI had forwarded to the White House a letter, evidently from Ford, describing alleged misconduct in the 1980s by Kavanaugh. The statement seemed to suggest the FBI was not currently investigating it.
Underscoring the raw political divisions prompted by the Kavanaugh fight, Feinstein said she’d only learned of the hearing on Twitter.
Earlier, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, said it would be “a deep insult to the women of America” if Grassley did not postpone Thursday’s meeting. And in an unusually personal swipe, Schumer said McConnell was showing “unmitigated gall” to oppose delaying Kavanaugh’s nomination after refusing for most of 2016 to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the court after Antonin Scalia died.
Kavanaugh and Ford had each indicated earlier Monday a willingness to testify to the Judiciary committee. Debra S. Katz, Ford’s attorney, said on NBC’s “Today” show that Ford was ready to testify publicly to the Judiciary panel, but she did not respond Monday evening to efforts to learn whether she would appear.