The Senate Republicans consider any allegations of bad behavior, no matter how reprehensible, to be outweighed by their own benefits from elevating Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The allegations of bad behavior by Kavanaugh include sexual assault, misrepresenting or distorting the truth (even when under oath), and judicial impropriety. To counterbalance these allegations, Republicans dispute the existence of any evidence that supports these allegations and to downplay the seriousness of them.
Why Republicans engaged in so many mental contortions to quickly put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court is not clear. Some Supreme Court observers have attributed the speed with which McConnell wanted to move Kavanaugh through the process as a way of limiting the discovery of unflattering information about Kavanaugh. Just as likely, it was to protect Trump from any adverse rulings growing out of the Russia investigation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other conservatives have worked for a conservative majority on the Supreme Court for since Richard Nixon’s presidency. But there are many other conservative justices without Kavanaugh’s baggage who would have probably ruled much as Kavanaugh will who could have been appointed. The primary difference between other conservative judges and Kavanaugh is that Kavanaugh has written that the President should be exempt from any investigation other than impeachment while in office. It is worth noting that Judge Kavanaugh was not on the original list of 25 potential conservative nominees Trump received from the right-wing Federalist Society and trumpeted throughout his campaign. Trump apparently received some information about Kavanaugh that made Trump hoist him to the top of his list. Of course, once Kavanaugh gave his impassioned “white male as victim” statement to counter Dr. Ford’s statement accusing him, and it resonated with the Republican base, confirming Kavanaugh to fire up the base became his most potent benefit.
Why Republicans engaged in so many mental contortions to quickly put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court is not clear. Some Supreme Court observers have attributed the speed with which McConnell wanted to move Kavanaugh through the process as a way of limiting the discovery of unflattering information about Kavanaugh. Just as likely, it was to protect Trump from any adverse rulings growing out of the Russia investigation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other conservatives have worked for a conservative majority on the Supreme Court for since Richard Nixon’s presidency. But there are many other conservative justices without Kavanaugh’s baggage who would have probably ruled much as Kavanaugh will who could have been appointed. The primary difference between other conservative judges and Kavanaugh is that Kavanaugh has written that the President should be exempt from any investigation other than impeachment while in office. It is worth noting that Judge Kavanaugh was not on the original list of 25 potential conservative nominees Trump received from the right-wing Federalist Society and trumpeted throughout his campaign. Trump apparently received some information about Kavanaugh that made Trump hoist him to the top of his list. Of course, once Kavanaugh gave his impassioned “white male as victim” statement to counter Dr. Ford’s statement accusing him, and it resonated with the Republican base, confirming Kavanaugh to fire up the base became his most potent benefit.
To reap these benefits Republicans had to counter a compelling allegation of sexual assault by Dr. Ford. Dr. Ford testified that 36 years ago, as a 15-year-old, she attended a small gathering of other high school student acquaintances including Brett Kavanaugh and his best friend, Mark Judge. She described both Kavanaugh and Judge as stumbling drunk. She had one beer. As she went upstairs to a bathroom, she was pushed from behind into a bedroom onto a bed. They locked the door and turned up the music. Kavanaugh got on top of her pinning her so that she could not move and held his hand over her mouth, so she could not cry for help as he groped her and tried to remove her clothes. Initially, Judge stood by and watched until he jumped on both her and Kavanaugh, knocking her to the floor. She was able to run out of the room and locked herself in the bathroom. When asked, Dr. Ford said one of her most vivid memories of the incident was their laughter as they held her down and then stumbled down the stairs as she cowered in the bathroom.
To counter Dr. Ford’s credible testimony, the Republicans first tried to minimize the seriousness of the testimony for Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Precluded from directly arguing some form of “boys will be boys just trying to steal a kiss” by the sheer brute force of the physical attack, they resorted to saying Dr. Ford was mistaken in her identification of who had attacked her. To highlight gaps in her memory, as well as protect the old all-white Republican Senators from questioning Dr. Ford, they hired a female former prosecutor, Deborah Mitchell. But instead of showing gaps in Dr. Ford’s testimony, the questioning reinforced her accusation.
Following Dr. Ford’s statement and questioning, Kavanaugh began reading his prepared by declaring that he had written his statement the night before without input from anyone else. The pundits did not seem to notice this meant he could fully address Dr. Ford’s charges without affording Dr. Ford an opportunity to see his statement. Kavanaugh’s statement reinforced the worst parts of tribalism by drawing a distinct line between Democrats and Republicans. And by implication, his statement put Dr. Ford with Democrats whom he accused of perpetrating a “hit job” on him, while he emphasized his affiliation with Republicans. Kavanaugh, at times near tears, denied Dr. Ford’s accusation in a tone that alternated between emotional and savage. Despite his tone, the most important thing Kavanaugh’s statement did was to discredit Dr. Ford’s testimony and begin the Republican assault on her truthfulness.
Mitchell’s planned questioning of Kavanaugh was interrupted by Senator Lindsey Graham when she started to dig into an apparent contradiction in Kavanaugh’s earlier testimony, and when she reminded Mr. Kavanaugh that there was no statute of limitations for rape in Maryland. Graham, recognizing the ineffectiveness of trying to minimize the seriousness of the charges, followed Kavanaugh’s lead and refuted Dr. Ford. Republican Senators picked up this theme and based on what they called a lack of corroboration, called Dr. Ford a liar.
Using the lack of corroboration as the basis for calling Dr. Ford a liar was especially insidious because the Republicans deliberately distorted the meaning of corroboration. Corroboration does not mean having more than one witness, videotape, or other forensic evidence. One person’s testimony against another is corroborated if the accused is a proven liar. Kavanaugh’s classmates contradicted his testimony about how much and how often he drank and was consistent with Dr. Ford’s description of Kavanaugh and Judge being “stumbling drunk.” Besides lying about his drinking behavior and fraternity-like excesses, Kavanaugh was caught in lies about how he and several of his closest friends humiliated another teenage girl by publicly insinuating that they had all had sex with her. And he lied to the committee about the meaning of various terms he’d written in his yearbook. Even if we attribute those lies to a tantrum because he did not feel as if he should have been asked those questions, we are left with his unsuitability for the Supreme Court.
Judge’s statement that he did not recall the assault while not supporting Dr. Ford does not exonerate Kavanaugh because he was an admitted blackout alcoholic. None of the other students Dr. Ford remembered as being at this gathering recalled it, although we don’t know if such a gathering would have been uncommon because the Republicans did not have them testify before the committee. In addition, other high school and college classmates of Kavanaugh’s recalled heavy drinking and inappropriate behavior toward at least one other female, Debbie Ramirez.
The Democratic Senators were relentless in calling for an FBI supplemental background investigation of Dr. Ford’s charges. The Republican Senators were just as relentless in ignoring those calls and rushing Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Senator Jeff Flake, a strong Kavanaugh supporter, decided to withhold his confirmation vote until the FBI carried out a supplemental background investigation that was limited in time (one week) and scope (to be determined by the White House). Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, along with Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins) joined Flake in this demand. Needing their votes, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed. The Mainstream Media and the usual pundits joined in a very premature celebration of the bipartisanship.
It turned out that only 10 witnesses, excluding Dr. Ford and Kavanaugh, were interviewed in four days. The results of those interviews have not been publicly released. As many as 40 other witnesses tried to give information to the FBI about Kavanaugh and the sexual incident reported by Ramirez but were rejected. Moreover, the usual FBI investigative procedure of allowing leads developed during the investigation to be pursued was not permitted. Apparently, nothing that could have impugned the credibility of Kavanaugh was included in the supplemental investigation. Other than providing cover for Flake and Collins to confirm Kavanaugh, it is unclear what the purpose of this investigation was.
The committee did not fully investigate the testimony of these many willing witnesses. The committee claimed they did not have time. Senate Republicans even ignored the charge that Kavanaugh had lied before the committee about his involvement in the theft of emails between Democrats when he was an operative in George W. Bush’s administration. They treated these lies as irrelevant to his suitability for the Supreme Court. Thus, the Senate Republicans accused Dr. Ford of lying because she had no corroboration when they refused to allow an investigation that might have proven Kavanaugh lacked the credibility to refute Dr. Ford’s testimony.
Kavanaugh deserved to be presumed innocent. But Dr. Ford also deserved to be presumed innocent of lying about who assaulted her. She was not given the presumption of innocence. We know people of color are not given that presumption of innocence of lying unless there is videotape evidence. Now we know white women are also not given that presumption, at least not when white men of privilege dispute it. Eventually, white men who are not privileged will realize they are also not given that presumption.
The importance what happened to Dr. Ford is not merely the reprehensible way a Republican majority treated a citizen who came forward with information about a nominee to the Supreme Court that ran counter to their preferences. More important is the fact that Republicans do not believe that all citizens deserve equal justice; only white men of privilege.
Mitchell’s planned questioning of Kavanaugh was interrupted by Senator Lindsey Graham when she started to dig into an apparent contradiction in Kavanaugh’s earlier testimony, and when she reminded Mr. Kavanaugh that there was no statute of limitations for rape in Maryland. Graham, recognizing the ineffectiveness of trying to minimize the seriousness of the charges, followed Kavanaugh’s lead and refuted Dr. Ford. Republican Senators picked up this theme and based on what they called a lack of corroboration, called Dr. Ford a liar.
Using the lack of corroboration as the basis for calling Dr. Ford a liar was especially insidious because the Republicans deliberately distorted the meaning of corroboration. Corroboration does not mean having more than one witness, videotape, or other forensic evidence. One person’s testimony against another is corroborated if the accused is a proven liar. Kavanaugh’s classmates contradicted his testimony about how much and how often he drank and was consistent with Dr. Ford’s description of Kavanaugh and Judge being “stumbling drunk.” Besides lying about his drinking behavior and fraternity-like excesses, Kavanaugh was caught in lies about how he and several of his closest friends humiliated another teenage girl by publicly insinuating that they had all had sex with her. And he lied to the committee about the meaning of various terms he’d written in his yearbook. Even if we attribute those lies to a tantrum because he did not feel as if he should have been asked those questions, we are left with his unsuitability for the Supreme Court.
Judge’s statement that he did not recall the assault while not supporting Dr. Ford does not exonerate Kavanaugh because he was an admitted blackout alcoholic. None of the other students Dr. Ford remembered as being at this gathering recalled it, although we don’t know if such a gathering would have been uncommon because the Republicans did not have them testify before the committee. In addition, other high school and college classmates of Kavanaugh’s recalled heavy drinking and inappropriate behavior toward at least one other female, Debbie Ramirez.
The Democratic Senators were relentless in calling for an FBI supplemental background investigation of Dr. Ford’s charges. The Republican Senators were just as relentless in ignoring those calls and rushing Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Senator Jeff Flake, a strong Kavanaugh supporter, decided to withhold his confirmation vote until the FBI carried out a supplemental background investigation that was limited in time (one week) and scope (to be determined by the White House). Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, along with Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins) joined Flake in this demand. Needing their votes, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed. The Mainstream Media and the usual pundits joined in a very premature celebration of the bipartisanship.
It turned out that only 10 witnesses, excluding Dr. Ford and Kavanaugh, were interviewed in four days. The results of those interviews have not been publicly released. As many as 40 other witnesses tried to give information to the FBI about Kavanaugh and the sexual incident reported by Ramirez but were rejected. Moreover, the usual FBI investigative procedure of allowing leads developed during the investigation to be pursued was not permitted. Apparently, nothing that could have impugned the credibility of Kavanaugh was included in the supplemental investigation. Other than providing cover for Flake and Collins to confirm Kavanaugh, it is unclear what the purpose of this investigation was.
The committee did not fully investigate the testimony of these many willing witnesses. The committee claimed they did not have time. Senate Republicans even ignored the charge that Kavanaugh had lied before the committee about his involvement in the theft of emails between Democrats when he was an operative in George W. Bush’s administration. They treated these lies as irrelevant to his suitability for the Supreme Court. Thus, the Senate Republicans accused Dr. Ford of lying because she had no corroboration when they refused to allow an investigation that might have proven Kavanaugh lacked the credibility to refute Dr. Ford’s testimony.
Kavanaugh deserved to be presumed innocent. But Dr. Ford also deserved to be presumed innocent of lying about who assaulted her. She was not given the presumption of innocence. We know people of color are not given that presumption of innocence of lying unless there is videotape evidence. Now we know white women are also not given that presumption, at least not when white men of privilege dispute it. Eventually, white men who are not privileged will realize they are also not given that presumption.
The importance what happened to Dr. Ford is not merely the reprehensible way a Republican majority treated a citizen who came forward with information about a nominee to the Supreme Court that ran counter to their preferences. More important is the fact that Republicans do not believe that all citizens deserve equal justice; only white men of privilege.