A divided nation entered a new week still processing and debating a long, harrowing day of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee involving Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual misconduct against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The judiciary committee voted 11-10 along party lines on Friday to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Senate floor, but only after Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., crafted a one-week delay on the floor vote that would allow the FBI to investigate allegations against Kavanaugh by Ford and at least one other accuser.
“This country is being ripped apart here,” Flake said from the dais of the committee room. “I think we can have a short pause and make sure the FBI can investigate.”
At the hearing, Ford, a research psychologist and professor, detailed her account that Kavanaugh and a friend pushed her into a bedroom at a party in 1982 when both were high school students; got on top of her while both remained clothed; and sexually assaulted her.
“Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes,” Ford said Thursday. “He had a hard time because he was very inebriated, and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit underneath my clothes. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling.”
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