Christine Blasey Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee and a riveted nation on Thursday that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in a locked room at a 1980s high school gathering, as the panel began an extraordinary hearing at which Kavanaugh hoped to salvage his Supreme Court nomination.
“I believed he was going to rape me,” said Ford, 51, her voice breaking. Expressing certainty that Kavanaugh was her attacker, the California psychology professor explained how the brain remembers traumatic events. “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter of the two,” she said, referring to Kavanaugh and a friend who was with him.
Kavanaugh has denied Ford’s and other women’s allegations of sexual misconduct, in a clash that has underscored America’s political and cultural fault lines. But accumulating accusations have raised questions about whether Republican leaders will be able to hold GOP senators behind President Donald Trump’s nominee.
The conservative jurist, whose Senate confirmation had seemed assured until Ford and the other women emerged, awaited his own chance to testify later in the day.
With millions watching on television, Ford told the top committee Democrat, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, that she’d “agonised daily” over coming forward about the alleged decades-old attack. She said she feared the personal consequences would be akin to “jumping in front of a train.” In fact, both she and Kavanaugh have received death threats.
Republicans have challenged Ford’s and other women’s allegations, in part because it took them years to come forward. But when Feinstein asked her how she could be sure Kavanaugh was attacker, Ford said, “The same way I’m sure I’m talking to you right now.” But conservative jurist is facing allegations of sexual misconduct from other women as well, forcing Republican leaders to struggle to keep support for him from eroding.