As Christine Blasey Ford was questioned by prosecutor Rachel Mitchell before the Senate Judiciary Committee, there were two separate issues at hand. The first, and most important, of course, was whether Brett Kavanaugh committed sexual assault. The second was if that allegation was properly handled by Democrats and her lawyers.
These issues, although related, must be kept separate, and the hearing did a poor job of doing that while Ford served as a witness.
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By trying to push both issues at the same time through the questions asked by Mitchell, Republicans ultimately settled on a losing strategy, and one that played poorly in the televised court of public opinion. Mitchell asked small questions that didn’t get at what senators and the public were most interested in and what is most important: what actually happened at that party.
This was the wrong approach.
For one thing, it distracts from the primary question that holds Kavanaugh’s confirmation in question. For every question that Mitchell asked about Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s handling of the information provided by Ford, and there were many such questions, Republicans lost an opportunity to delve into the alleged sexual assault.
Moreover, it gives Democrats an easy point against Republican opponents: arguing that Republican senators didn’t really care about the facts of the assault and were far more interested in railing against how Democrats handled the case.
Finally, so much focus on the conduct of the Democrats in contact with Ford meant that the entire hearing became needlessly politicized. That has not only damaged the integrity of the Senate hearing process, but also meant that the actual issue of sexual assault was overshadowed.
The reason for the conflation of these issues, of course, was political. On one hand, Democrats were pushed to defend their process of sitting on the accusation until the proverbial last minute. On the other, Republicans, as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., made clear in a post hearing interview, felt that they have been blindsided by accusations and are frustrated with the process that has forced them into this situation.
Those inclinations were even more pronounced by what is presumed by both parties to be at stake: the looming November election. Although it is no hard and fast deadline, Republicans, probably correctly, think that failing to get a confirmation before then will cost them support — and perhaps even the Senate. For Democrats, keeping the nomination up in the air through the election would turn November’s vote into a referendum on the Supreme Court nomination, which would likely give them a boost in the ballot box.
Unfortunately, that tense, partisan environment meant that the questioning of Ford tried to parse both of the issues at hand: whether Kavanaugh committed sexual assault, and the political issue of how much Democrats are to blame for the circus.
Finding fault with the way that Feinstein handled the allegations and the problems with the hearing is one thing. But that critique must not be conflated with a critique of Ford’s testimony. The two are separate issues and much remain such. The hearing should have done a better job of separating them.
