Two key Senate Republicans indicated Monday that they are resisting calls for a new hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after a woman identified herself over the weekend to say Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school.
That claim from Christine Ford Blasey led Democrats to say this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination should be scrapped, and that a new hearing should be held. Even Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said a new hearing was needed.
But in a Monday statement, Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, made it clear he wants to use the “standard procedure” for handling followup questions, which stops short of a new hearing.
“In this case, that would entail phone calls with at least Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford,” Grassley said. “Consistent with that practice, I asked Senator Feinstein’s office yesterday to join me in scheduling these follow-ups. Thus far, they have refused. But as a necessary step in evaluating these claims, I’ll continue working to set them up.”
Grassley made no mention of even the possibility of a new hearing, and instead complained that Democrats held onto Ford’s allegation for a few months, and only engineered its release just days before the committee was ready to act.
“The Minority withheld even the anonymous allegations for six weeks, only to later decide that they were serious enough to investigate on the eve of the committee vote, after the vetting process had been completed,” Grassley said.
He did stress that the committee wanted to hear from Ford, even though he seemed to preclude the idea of a new hearing.
“Anyone who comes forward as Dr. Ford has deserves to be heard, so I will continue working on a way to hear her out in an appropriate, precedented and respectful manner,” Grassley said.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, released a similar statement that said the Judiciary Committee should treat the accusation with the “seriousness it deserves,” but also said this can be done quickly and through “regular order.” Cornyn also indicated he and Republican leaders still want to move Kavanaugh’s confirmation as quickly as possible.
“That Democrats have so egregiously mishandled this up until now is no excuse for us to do the same,” he said. “If Democrats reject the committee handling this swiftly and in a bipartisan way through regular order, then it’s clear that their only intention is to smear Judge Kavanaugh and derail his nomination.”
