WASHINGTON — Battling to rescue his Supreme Court nomination, a beleaguered Brett Kavanaugh forcefully fought back Thursday against allegations that he’d sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when both were high school students, telling Congress that her and others’ allegations have “totally and permanently destroyed” his family and his reputation.
In a loud voice, the conservative jurist told the Senate Judiciary Committee that his confirmation process had become “a national disgrace.”
“You have replace advice and consent with search and destroy,” he said.
Ford says she is “100 percent” certain that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were high-school teenagers.
Ford answered in response to Sen. Dick Durbin’s question asking what degree of certainty Ford had that it was Kavanaugh.
It was the second time in the televised hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that Ford asserted that her claim against Kavanaugh was not a case of mistaken identity.
Both instances were in response to questions from Democratic senators who were trying to reinforce Ford’s credibility as Kavanaugh’s accuser.
Kavanaugh left his suburban Maryland home ahead of his expected testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on allegations he sexually assaulted a teen at a party.
Kavanaugh left through the side door of his Chevy Chase, Maryland, home where an American flag was hung outside the front door and a basketball hoop stood out front.
Kavanaugh stepped into a waiting black SUV as a reporter shouted questions. He did not comment.
While he got into his car, his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford was being questioned by senators. She told the panel that she was barricaded in a bedroom by Kavanaugh and a friend, and Kavanaugh held her down, covered her mouth and sexually assaulted her. He denies the allegations.
Ford has testified that she saw Brett Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge a few weeks after she says Kavanaugh assaulted her.
Ford says Judge was in the room when Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a gathering when they were teens. Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, denies assaulting Ford. Judge in a statement said he has “no memory” of the alleged incident.
Ford told the senators she ran into Judge at a Safeway store roughly “six to eight weeks” after the assault. She recalled that after she said hello, “his face was white.” She said Judge was “nervous,” didn’t want to speak with her and “looked a little bit ill.”
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee want to subpoena Judge for his testimony. Republicans have rejected that request. Judge, through his lawyer, has said he does not wish to speak publicly.
Ford says her strongest memory of the time she alleges Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens is the laughter.
Ford, a research psychologist and professor, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that “indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter.”
She was describing Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, the other teen she says was present as they locked her in a room at a party.
The 51-year-old mom from Palo Alto, California, was asked by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont of her strongest memory of the incident.
Ford testified that Kavanaugh and Judge “were laughing with each other.”
Asked if she has ever forgotten that laughter, she shook her head no.
She described being “underneath one of them” as the two laughed.
President Donald Trump is watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Air Force One on a slight delay.