White House ‘Open’ To Hearing From Second Kavanaugh Accuser

Grassley also has resisted Democrats’ calls for an Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into Ford’s allegations.

Republicans are up in arms about the sexual assault allegations now dogging Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and no one is more infuriated than Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Proceeding with Kavanaugh seems to give Republicans their best shot at filling the Supreme Court vacancy – and giving the court an increasingly conservative tilt – before November’s elections, when GOP Senate control is in play.

Kavanaugh, who would serve a life term as a Supreme Court justice, has been the subject of accusations from two women of sexual misconduct dating from his high school and college years. But he added, “What I know is I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone”, a remarkable assertion for a nominee to the nation’s highest court.

On top of this, Hirono demanded last week that American men shut up, and not bother Ford with patriarchal concepts like “due process” and ‘evidence.’ Speaking at a press conference with Senate Democrats, Hirono called on the “men of this country” to “just shut up and step up”.

TRT World’s Mary McCarthy has more from Los Angeles.

The White House and its Republican congressional allies on Tuesday delivered a message of unwavering support for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh after the judge went on television to fight back against allegations of sexual misconduct that have imperiled his nomination.

A second accusation came out this past weekend, September 23, through The New Yorker.

“The truth is I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone, in high school or otherwise”, Kavanaugh said. Grassley released the letter on Monday, along with a letter from Kavanaugh himself in which he flatly denies Ford’s allegations.

After a dramatic weeklong standoff, Kavanaugh’s accuser Ford finally committed Sunday to be questioned in a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is weighing Kavanaugh’s nomination.

His tweets sparked the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport, in which survivors of sexual assault explained why they didn’t report their attacks. Since Ford detailed her story to The Washington Post, all of the people she alleged to have attended a 1982 teenage house party in Maryland have come forward to deny the allegation.

Dianne Feinstein. Kavanaugh said he would not be intimidated into withdrawing and called the accusations a “coordinated effort” of smears.

He added that Democrats refuse to let the facts get in the way of “a good smear”, calling the episode “despicable”.

“Senator Gillibrand had never heard of this group until she recently read about them in the newspaper”, one of her spokespeople said.

Only after that exhaustive process was complete did I learn, through the news media, about a 36-year-old allegation from high school that had been asserted months earlier and withheld from me throughout the hearing process. He said he did not question that perhaps Ms Ford at some point in her life was sexually assaulted, “but what I know is I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone”. The standard here used to be a criminal charge or at least a legitimate lawsuit, but now if unnamed partisan political operatives, with a huge self-interest to push a damaging story regardless of its truth, simply get information and say it ought to be looked into further, this now reaches the threshold for publishing?!

“Following Dr. Ford’s testimony, Judge Kavanaugh will appear again before the committee”, according to a statement from the committee. All three told investigators that they had no recollection of the evening in question, the committee said. The counsel said it was the committee’s “non-negotiable” right to determine who would be allowed to testify.

The president was visibly frustrated with the situation surrounding his Supreme Court nominee and repeatedly dinged the Democrats for holding up the process around Kavanaugh, whom he described multiple times as a “high quality” person. “His family has suffered”, Trump said.