Ford recalls ‘laughter’ during alleged 1980s Kavanaugh sex assault

United States President Donald Trump has reacted to Brett Kavanaugh’s opening testimony on sexual assault allegation.

“I am here today not because I want to be”, Blasey Ford said as she recounted the alleged assault at a high school party at a suburban Maryland home.

She described in detail how an inebriated Kavanaugh and another teen, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her.

“Don’t look away from me”, she said.

In Phoenix, Kelly Moore said that she found Kavanaugh to be more believable. Kirsten Gillibrand of NY, after Ford testified about her allegation over the course of four hours. Cory Booker asked how her family was doing under the pressure.

“This confirmation process has become a national disgrace”, he told the committee.

“Dr. Ford’s allegations are not merely uncorroborated, it’s refuted by the very people she says were there”.

“It is also possible that one of them is deliberately lying”, he noted.

Mr Hatch said the hearing was “worse” than the 1991 hearing for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – which Mr Hatch also participated in and which led to a surge in the number of women elected to Congress the next year.

As the Associated Press notes, “Republicans are concerned, among other reasons, that further investigations could push a vote past the November elections that may switch Senate control back to the Democrats and make consideration of any Trump nominee more hard”. Echoing Ford, he said he was “100 percent certain” he did not commit the assault.

When Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked whether he had suffered memory loss from drinking, Kavanaugh denied it and then challenged her, saying “You’re asking about blackout”.

“For 12 years, everyone who has appeared before me on the D.C. Circuit has praised my judicial temperament”, Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee members on Thursday.

What happened to the prosecutor?

Kavanaugh also responded to questions from Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse about his drinking by telling the Rhode Island senator, “I like beer”.

Blasey Ford said she managed to escape when Judge jumped on the bed, sending them all toppling.

But Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from SC, hit out at the Democrats following Blasey Ford’s testimony.

Democrats rallied around Dr. Ford on Thursday, casting her as a reputable and credible witness. “I am. furious. How many of you are furious?”

Democrats were incensed in their remarks Friday about the partisan nature of Kavanaugh’s pushback, but Shah said that Kavanaugh “was correctly and rightly pointing out how broken this process is”.

Asked whether more time or investigating would help, as Democrats suggested repeatedly on Thursday, Flake seemed to reject the idea.

Republicans quickly expressed their determination to move forward.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote – after Arizona GOP Sen. Scott added that the Senate should wait to schedule a vote until after Ford’s testimony.

It’s likely to depend on whether Senate Republican leaders are confident they have 51 votes.

Democratic senators said they had not released the allegations initially because Ford had asked to keep them confidential. Sens. Susan Collins of ME and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both supporters of abortion rights, have remained noncommittal.