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Brett Kavanaugh, the Accusations and the Fallout: Catch Up on the News | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Updated Sept. 27 | Updated Sept. 27 |
President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her decades ago are appearing before a Senate panel on Thursday, an extraordinary turn in a confirmation process that has dominated headlines for weeks. | President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her decades ago are appearing before a Senate panel on Thursday, an extraordinary turn in a confirmation process that has dominated headlines for weeks. |
Follow our updates during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and watch it live here. | |
The nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, denied accusations from that woman, Christine Blasey Ford, and others on Wednesday, amid a flurry of new charges and countercharges. | The nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, denied accusations from that woman, Christine Blasey Ford, and others on Wednesday, amid a flurry of new charges and countercharges. |
Here’s a guide to the latest coverage from The Times. | Here’s a guide to the latest coverage from The Times. |
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Three women have publicly come forward with allegations against Judge Kavanaugh, while two additional anonymous accusations surfaced from the committee on Wednesday, one of which was later recanted. | |
Dr. Blasey, a research psychologist, was the first to come forward publicly, accusing Judge Kavanaugh of pinning her down at a high school party, trying to take off her clothing and covering her mouth to keep her from screaming. (Read our profile of her.) | |
On Sunday, The New Yorker reported that Deborah Ramirez, who works for the Boulder County housing department in Colorado and sits on the board of a domestic violence organization, said that Judge Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken college party. (Here’s our profile of her.) | On Sunday, The New Yorker reported that Deborah Ramirez, who works for the Boulder County housing department in Colorado and sits on the board of a domestic violence organization, said that Judge Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken college party. (Here’s our profile of her.) |
Then, on Wednesday, Julie Swetnick, who has held a variety of public- and private-sector jobs, including working for federal government agencies, said that Judge Kavanaugh was “present” when she was raped at a high school party. | |
In an anonymous letter sent to a Republican senator, a woman said her daughter witnessed Judge Kavanaugh drunkenly push her friend, whom he was dating, against a wall after they left a Washington bar one night in 1998. | |
Although he admitted on Wednesday to having regrets about his choices in high school, Judge Kavanaugh has adamantly denied the allegations. | |
At a wide-ranging news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said they “are all false,” but also said that he “can always be convinced” by Dr. Blasey’s testimony on Thursday. | |
Rumors have also started circulating about the accusers’ allegations. We debunk five viral ones here. | |
[Make sense of the people, issues and ideas shaping the 2018 elections with our new politics newsletter. Here’s our latest one on Wednesday’s news.] | [Make sense of the people, issues and ideas shaping the 2018 elections with our new politics newsletter. Here’s our latest one on Wednesday’s news.] |
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Republicans were quick to suggest that the claims were part of a smear campaign, with President Trump accusing Democrats of being “con artists.” Judge Kavanaugh took the extraordinary measure on Monday of defending himself in a Fox News interview, the first time in memory that a Supreme Court nominee sat for a televised interview before a confirmation vote. | |
Conservatives are divided over how to proceed. The nomination itself rests on the votes of a few Senate Republicans and one of them, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has warned not to prejudge the allegations. | |
Some Republican women running for the House have calibrated their responses to the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh to avoid alienating female voters. | |
For good reason, too. In battleground districts, voters are deeply divided on the nomination. | |
As Judge Kavanaugh’s high school and college years have come under scrutiny, a common theme has emerged with respect to the accusations: heavy drinking and a culture that some describe as disrespectful to women. | |
The sensitivity of the situation, particularly in the #MeToo era, is not lost on the 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, all of them white men. They retained a female prosecutor to help question one of the accusers, Dr. Blasey, at the Thursday hearing. Here’s what we know about that prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell. | |
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The allegations activated liberals, who held rallies and participated in walkouts on Monday, ahead of a planned day of action on Thursday. Survivors of abuse have also rallied around a new hashtag, #WhyIDidntReport, to highlight the difficulties, fear, anger and shame that so often surround sexual harassment and assault. | |
“I believe her,” Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, who has emerged as a leading Democratic defender of the women who have accused Judge Kavanaugh, said of Dr. Blasey’s accusation. (She is a member of the Judiciary Committee.) | |
The political stakes are high, with some Democrats hoping that the derailment of Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation could buy them time to win back the Senate in the November midterm elections, and, consequently, gain control over the confirmation of Mr. Trump’s next nominee. | |
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In preparation for Thursday’s testimony, both Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh released their opening statements. You can read Dr. Blasey’s statement here, and Judge Kavanaugh’s statement here. | |
Many have seen parallels between the accusations facing Judge Kavanaugh today and the ones from Anita Hill, who accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual misconduct during his Supreme Court confirmation process more than a quarter-century ago. | |
Read more about her testimony and key moments from Judge Thomas’s hearings, and listen to an episode from The Daily that revisits it. Ms. Hill, now a professor at Brandeis University, weighed in herself, writing in a New York Times Op-Ed that, this time around, the Senate Judiciary Committee can “do better.” | |
Advisers have said that Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh face different challenges on Thursday. For Dr. Blasey, an unknown figure, details matter. For Judge Kavanaugh, he must defend himself, but not attack his accuser. |