Two undecided Senate Democrats said they consider California professor Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony detailing her allegation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to be “credible.”
Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and John Tester of Montana said Ford’s testimony was credible Thursday when asked by reporters a few hours into the hearing. Donnelly and Tester are both in tough re-election races in states that went for President Trump in 2016. The two have yet to indicate how they plan to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“I think she’s an extraordinarily compelling and brave person,” Donnelly told reporters. “I think that she’s been extraordinarily credible, compelling, and courageous.”
Tester told the Washington Post that, “yes” Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday is credible.
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Asked Sen. Tester if he found Dr. Ford credible.
Tester: “Yes.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) September 27, 2018
The majority of Senate Democrats have said they will vote against Kavanaugh, but Donnelly, Tester, and Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia are waiting until the completion of Thursday’s hearing before saying how they will vote.
Kavanaugh denies Ford’s allegation as well as the accusations of others who have emerged in recent weeks.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee voiced frustration with Republicans’ handling of the hearing, and questioned their decision to have outside counsel question Ford.
“You’d think they would have learned something from Anita Hill,” said Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt. “And they obviously haven’t learned a single thing.”
Asked if the questions coming from the counsel hired for Republicans weakened Ford’s credibility, Leahy said, “absolutely not.”
“Seems to me that one of the things that you do when you’re here and on a committee is you ask your own questions,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ranking member on judiciary panel. “This is a question of truth, and she’s telling the truth, and I think that’s apparent to everybody that listens.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., pointed to an exchange that he thought showed a pattern of wrongdoing by Kavanaugh. When Ford was asked what she remembered most from the assault, she said the “uproarious laughter” between Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, who Ford alleges was also in the room.
Kaine drew a connection between that and the account from Deborah Ramirez, who shared her allegation of assault against Kavanaugh with the New Yorker on Sunday.
“The elements of drinking, multiple men in a room, and assaulting somebody while you’re laughing that is the element that is present in both of these stories of these very different people, in different places in different times,” Kaine said. “Almost like this was abusing a woman to impress the other guys around and that similarity in both these stories is a kind of corroboration.”
