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Showdown
hearing
not yet
set:
Dems,
GOP
arguing
on
witnesses
By
ALAN
FRAM
and LISA
MASCARO
APNews.com
WASHINGTON
-
Trading
accusations,
Democratic
and
Republican
senators
quarreled
Tuesday
over who
will
testify
at what
promises
to be a
dramatic
and
emotional
hearing
next
Monday
with
Supreme
Court
nominee
Brett
Kavanaugh
and the
woman
who says
he
sexually
assaulted
her when
they
were in
high
school.
But
doubts
were
raised
whether
she
would
appear.
Kavanaugh
was at
the
White
House
for a
second
straight
day, but
again
did not
meet
with
President
Donald
Trump.
The
president
said he
was
“totally
supporting”
Kavanaugh
and
rejected
calls
for the
FBI to
investigate
the
accusation.
“I
don’t
think
FBI
really
should
be
involved
because
they
don’t
want to
be
involved,”
Trump
said.
“If they
wanted
to be, I
would
certainly
do that.
But as
you
know,
they say
this is
not
really
their
thing.
But I
think
politically
speaking,
the
senators
will do
a very
good
job.”
Democrats
are
demanding
that the
FBI be
given
time to
reopen
its
background
investigation
into
Kavanaugh
so it
can
check
the
assertions
of
Christine
Blasey
Ford,
the
woman
accusing
Kavanaugh
of
assault.
They say
the
hearing
should
not move
forward
until
that
investigation
is
completed.
Senate
Minority
Leader
Chuck
Schumer,
D-N.Y.,
said an
FBI
investigation
is
“essential”
to
prevent
the
hearing
from
becoming
merely a
“he
said,
she said
affair.”
Republicans
responded
that
reopening
the
investigation
is up to
the
White
House
and they
are
sticking
with
their
plans
for a
Monday
hearing
— with
or
without
Ford’s
participation.
Sen.
Chuck
Grassley,
R-Iowa,
said on
radio’s
“Hugh
Hewitt
Show”
said
that
he’d not
yet
received
confirmation
from
Ford
that she
would
appear
at the
hearing,
despite
several
attempts
to reach
her
camp.
“So
it kind
of
raises
the
question,
do they
want to
come to
the
public
hearing
or not?”
Grassley
said.
A
day
earlier,
Republicans
abruptly
agreed
to hold
a public
Judiciary
Committee
hearing
at which
Kavanaugh
and Ford
have
been
invited
to
testify.
Party
leaders
made
that
concession
under
pressure
from
senators
demanding
that the
nominee
and his
accuser
give
public,
sworn
testimony
before
any vote
on
Trump’s
nominee.
Schumer
said
Democrats
want
more
than two
witnesses,
including
Mark
Judge,
who Ford
has said
was a
Kavanaugh
friend
present
during
the
alleged
incident.
Limiting
the
hearing
to just
Kavanaugh
and Ford
would be
“inadequate,
unfair,
wrong
and a
desire
not to
get at
the
whole
truth,”
Schumer
said.
Sen.
Dick
Durbin
of
Illinois,
the No.
2
Democrat,
said
Judge is
needed
“specifically
and
personally
as an
eyewitness
to the
occurrence.
He
should
testify
under
oath.”
As
both
sides
contemplated
the
hearing,
Republicans
were
thinking
through
the
optics
of a
nationally
televised
showdown
between
Kavanaugh
and his
accuser
at which
all 11
GOP
Judiciary
Committee
members
are men.
“There
is no
discussion
of a
Plan B”
should
Kavanaugh’s
nomination
fail,
according
to an
individual
familiar
with the
nomination
process
but not
authorized
to speak
publicly.
The
person
said
there
should
be no
such
discussion
until
more
information
about
the
alleged
incident
comes to
light.
The
hearing
is
certain
to be
conflicting
and
emotive.
It will
offer a
campaign
season
test of
the
political
potency
of a
#MeToo
movement
that has
already
toppled
prominent
men from
entertainment,
government
and
journalism
and
energized
female
voters
and
political
candidates.
Asked by
Hewitt
if he
was
considering
including
a female
counsel
who
would
ask
questions,
Grassley
said,
“All
those
things
are
being
taken
into
consideration.”
He added
later,
“You’re
raising
legitimate
questions
that are
still in
my
mind.”
Sen.
Orrin
Hatch of
Utah,
who is
on the
Judiciary
Committee,
said
Republicans
are
“naturally”
concerned
about
the
optics
of
having
only
Republican
men
question
Ford
“because
there’s
always a
lot of
prejudice
in these
matters.”
Meanwhile,
Senate
Majority
Leader
Mitch
McConnell
stood
strongly
behind
Brett
Kavanaugh,
saying
her
claims
that
he’d
sexually
attacked
her when
both
were
high
schoolers
“stands
at odds”
with
everything
known
about
the
Supreme
Court
nominee’s
background.
McConnell
said
that
“blatant
malpractice”
by
Democrats
— not
releasing
a letter
by the
accuser
until
the
confirmation
process
was
nearing
its end
— “will
not stop
the
Senate
from
moving
forward
in a
responsible
manner.”
The
remarks
by
McConnell,
R-Ky.,
seemed
aimed at
signaling
that
while
Ford
will be
given
her
opportunity
to
detail
her
allegations
under
oath,
party
leaders
—
certainly
for now
— were
not
easing
off
their
support
of
Trump’s
nominee.
Democratic
Sen.
Dianne
Feinstein
of
California,
who
received
Ford’s
letter
over the
summer,
said she
didn’t
reveal
it to
protect
Ford’s
confidentiality.
Kavanaugh
spoke
with the
Judiciary
panel’s
counsel
Monday
and gave
a “clear
and
consistent”
account
of what
happened
36 years
ago,
said a
person
who
wasn’t
authorized
to be
identified
while
describing
the
process.
The
person
described
Kavanaugh
as
“resolute”
and
eager to
defend
himself.
Kavanaugh
met
Monday
with
White
House
Counsel
Don
McGahn
and
others
at the
White
House
and
called
several
senators.
Ford
says
that at
a party
when
both
were
teenagers
in the
early
1980s,
an
intoxicated
Kavanaugh
trapped
her in a
bedroom,
pinned
her on a
bed,
tried to
undress
her and
forced
his hand
over her
mouth
when she
tried to
scream.
She said
she got
away
when a
companion
of
Kavanaugh’s
jumped
on him.
Kavanaugh,
53, has
vehemently
denied
the
accusation.
He said
in a
statement
Monday
that he
wanted
to
“refute
this
false
allegation,
from 36
years
ago, and
defend
my
integrity.”
If
the
Judiciary
committee’s
timetable
slips,
it would
become
increasingly
difficult
for
Republicans
to
schedule
a vote
before
midterm
elections
on Nov.
6
elections,
when
congressional
control
will be
at
stake.
With
fragile
GOP
majorities
of just
11-10 on
the
Judiciary
committee
and
51-49 in
the full
Senate,
Republican
leaders
had
little
room for
defectors
without
risking
a
humiliating
defeat
of
Trump’s
nominee
to
replace
retired
Justice
Anthony
Kennedy.
Among
the GOP
defectors
was Sen.
Jeff
Flake of
Arizona,
a
Judiciary
Committee
member
who has
clashed
bitterly
with
Trump
and is
retiring
from the
Senate.
Flake
said he
told No.
2 Senate
Republican
leader
John
Cornyn
of Texas
on
Sunday
that “if
we
didn’t
give her
a chance
to be
heard,
then I
would
vote
no.”
There
was
enormous
pressure
on GOP
Sens.
Susan
Collins
of Maine
and Lisa
Murkowski
of
Alaska,
two
moderates
who have
yet to
announce
their
positions
on
Kavanaugh
and
aren’t
on the
Judiciary
Committee.
Collins
said
that in
a
telephone
conversation
with
Kavanaugh
on
Friday
he was
“absolutely
emphatic”
that the
assault
didn’t
occur.
She said
it would
be
“disqualifying”
if
Kavanaugh
was
lying.
Murkowski
said
Ford’s
story
“must be
taken
seriously.”
Neither
Collins
nor
Murkowski
faces
re-election
this
fall.
Democrats
say they
want the
FBI to
investigate
Ford’s
claims.
But
the
Justice
Department
said in
a
statement
late
Monday
that the
accusation
against
Kavanaugh
“does
not
involve
any
potential
federal
crime.”
It said
the FBI
had
forwarded
to the
White
House a
letter,
evidently
from
Ford,
describing
alleged
misconduct
in the
1980s by
Kavanaugh.
The
statement
seemed
to
suggest
that the
FBI was
not
currently
investigating
it.
Ford
is now a
psychology
professor
at
California’s
Palo
Alto
University.
Kavanaugh
is
currently
a judge
on the
U.S.
Court of
Appeals
for the
District
of
Columbia,
widely
viewed
as the
nation’s
second-most-powerful
court.
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