Since the day Christine Blaise Ford came forward with her allegations, President Trump, Senator Grassley, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican party have been so unfair to Brett Kavanaugh. By not asking the FBI to investigate the allegations, they are robbing him of his chance to clear his name. They are also refusing to subpoena the only person who was named as an eyewitness, who could testify under oath, that this did not happen, his high school buddy Mark Judge. Kavanaugh deserves better treatment from the Republicans. Without an FBI investigation and without witnesses like Judge, and perhaps the therapist who Blaise Ford claims to have told about the incident, the hearing is only going to be one person against the other. It is very unlikely that Ford will be so obviously not credible that everyone will agree Kavenaugh is clearly innocent. McConnell has promised Kavanaugh will be put on the court after the hearing with Ford. This would mean that Kavanaugh will always have this cloud over his head.
Trump said the FBI doesn’t do this. We know this is false. The FBI has teams of experts who’s job it is to investigate sexual assault, cases that have been cold for decades, to do background checks etc. Republicans complain that it isn’t fair to postpone the confirmation process any longer. Of course an FBI investigation would only take a week or two, so the delay we are talking is not a huge one. The other excuse for not ordering the FBI to investigate, was that because the case was so old, there would be nothing to investigate. This is clearly false as well. Besides Ford’s therapist and Mark Judge to interview (it is a federal crime to lie to the FBI - as many in Trump’s world know too well now) it has been demonstrated that there are plenty of people who would like to talk about these allegations. There are people who speak to the integrity of Kavanaugh, and as we have seen in the past few days, other women who have made accusations and asked the FBI to investigate them. Kavanaugh’s own college roommate at Yale has said he believes his accuser, who he also knows, over him. This seems like a good person to question. Blaise Ford now has four sworn affidavits, from people who say she told them about this before Kavanaugh was even close to nominated. So, plenty to investigate. Mark Judge would be the perfect person to interview. He even wrote a book about their time in high school. It is hard to believe, the Republicans don’t want him to come testify to Kavanaugh’s innocence and upstanding character. I guess the fact that his book is titled: “Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk” might have something to do with it.
Trump actually suggested that Kavanaugh has been treated more unfair than any nominee in history. And they complain that the Democrats are playing politics, and of course, before the sexual assault charges came out, the Democrats were causing a show because they felt that it was unfair that there were hundreds of thousands of documents that were kept from the committee and the public that related to Kavanaugh’s background. Certainly there are also many Democrats who oppose the nomination of a far right judge picked by the Federalist society for a lifetime appointment to the supreme court. Of course elections have consequences, Democrats new the supreme court was in play during the 2016 election and failed to rally enough people to win the White House. So while Democrats have the right to protest the process and argue policy difference, they also have to accept the fact that our Federal courts are now stacked heavily with for right judges.
But any charge from the Republicans that the Democrats are being unreasonable and unfair by delaying and playing politics, is totally horse shit. The Republicans refused to even hold a hearing for Obama’s nominee - Merrick Garland - for nearly a year! Garland was well respected and a very centrist choice. Arguably the best possible choice for the supreme court - someone both sides of the isle could support, someone solidly from the mainstream of the political spectrum. But they held the seat vacant, purely for political reasons, as they did over a hundred Federal Appeals court vacancies for years. This worked out well for them, as they have been able to seat more judges in the first two years of Trump’s admin, than probably ever before. This has been one of their biggest accomplishments for their base. In fact, I often hear people say they are willing to forget about all of Trump’s lies and the way he treats people and his swampy administration and his affairs with porn stars, all because he has been ‘good on judges’.
So yes, elections have consequences, but the Republicans cannot complain about the current process being postponed and delayed by two weeks after they ignored Garland for 10 months!
And then the other excuse the Republicans give for not giving Kavanaugh the investigation he deserves to clear his name, is that these women are not to be believed. Trump has been his ignorant and piggish self, suggesting if this really happened the women would have told authorities immediately. We know this is just stupid to say. Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes for many reasons. Reasons Trump and the Republicans are re enforcing - fear that the accuser/victim will not be believed, that they will be attacked, humiliated, etc. Trump also keeps saying Kavenaugh is such a good guy that he can’t imagine he would do this. How many of us thought that about Bill Cosby? People who seem like great people can do bad things. Of course Trump always sides with the men accused. He has no credibility on the topic of sexual assault, since he has actually boasted about sexually assaulting women. His excuse that this was just locker room talk doesn’t make it much better. If he thinks sexual assault is something to brag about (even if he was lying that he did it) he is obviously sick in the head.
And the excuse that these women are not credible, that they are pawns of the Democrats being used as some last ditch attempt to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Well the fact that all three women on the record for making allegations have asked the FBI to investigate, that suggests they just might be credible. How many women, with families, with PhDs, would be willing to lie to the FBI just to prevent a conservative judge from being confirmed? Especially when Trump is still president and will still get to choose the replacement, if for some reason, their secret conspiracy works to derail Kavanaugh. Of course, having Ford tell her story in the hearing, is not likely to shed light on her credibility. This is why they are doing Kavanaugh a disservice by not allowing the FBI to investigate and to prove these women are part of a Democratic plot.
The final excuse I have heard people give for why this should not be investigated, is that this is something that happened in high school and mistakes made then should not ruin your career. This could have been the argument if Kavanaugh said he did it, but that he was a dumb drunk kid and he regrets it. (I am not judging the merits of that argument, just saying it could have been the argument). But it is no longer about that. Now it is about whether or not Kavanaugh is truthful. If he did it back then, then he is lying now. There have been other allegations that Kavanaugh has lied during his confirmation hearings - one was about stolen Democratic emails that he was involved with when he was in the Bush White House. And there are others. So his credibility is not without question.
And to end, I must bring this up. Bret Kavanaugh deserves a full a fair investigation. He deserves the chance to clear his name. And during the hearing, he should be treated, just as he recommended Bill Clinton be treated when he was working with Ken Starr on the Whitewater investigation. This is what Bret Kavanaugh said (the actual memo is interesting to read in light of all that is happening now):
“I am strongly opposed to giving the President any ‘break’ in the questioning regarding the details of the Lewinsky relationship…I have tried hard to bend over backwards and to be fair to him and to think of all reasonable defenses to his pattern of behavior. In the end, I am convinced that there really are none. The idea of going easy on him at the questioning is thus abhorrent to me.”
He goes on to say they need to get the “full and complete” testimony of the President because of his “callous and disgusting behavior” with a 22 year old woman that has “turned her life into shambles”.
He then suggests questions that should be asked, which is a long list of questions such as: “ If Monica Lewinsky says you ejaculated into her mouth on two occasions in the Oval Office area, would she be lying?” “If Monica Lewinsky says you master-bated into a trashcan in your secretary’s office, would she be lying?” and it goes on and on. The resulting public report that Star, Kavanaugh, and team wrote, according to the Daily Beast, had the word ‘sex’ or a variation of 581 times while it only included the word Whitewater (the reason for the investigation - think Russian interference in our elections and collusion by the Trump campaign) four times.
I think the charges against Kavanaugh are as callous and disgusting as the ones levied against Clinton, so I imagine Kavanaugh would approve of some tough questions being asked of him.
What this unfortunate situation has clearly exposed, is that the Republicans (Trump, McConnell, Grassley, and the dozens who have been agreeing with them) don’t care about the truth, they don’t care about sexual assault, they don’t believe women (or they don’t care about women), they don’t care if they are incredibly hypocritical, and they really, really want to cement a far right majority on the supreme court for what could be generations.
