Justice on Trial_The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court by Mollie Hemingway & Carrie Severino

Author:Mollie Hemingway & Carrie Severino [Hemingway, Mollie & Severino, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2019-07-09T04:00:00+00:00

By the time the committee took its first break at 11:30 a.m., Kavanaugh’s situation was considered dire. Republican senators were described as “stone-faced” as they filed out of the hearing room, while the Democrats were already raising money off the hearing.7 Senator Hirono sent out an appeal within a half-hour of the opening of the hearing, for which she later apologized.8 Senator Kamala Harris’s campaign had dropped 3,600 different ads about Kavanaugh on Facebook by the time the hearing began.9

The media had already reached their verdict. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton spokesman, praised Ford’s “emotional” testimony and relatability. Cokie Roberts agreed. “We know women just like her. She certainly doesn’t seem to be somebody with an agenda as she is putting herself in this very difficult position.” Ford was “highly credible.”10

Her credibility, if anything, was viewed as stronger because of her lapses in memory and because of the odder parts to the story, such as her description of how she came to tell her husband about the assault. One of the reasons they were in couple’s therapy in 2012, she said, was a disagreement over a home remodeling project. She insisted on a second front door, even though it was not “aesthetically pleasing from the curb.” The purpose of the door, which was not readily visible from the street, was purportedly to assuage her claustrophobia, although others pointed out that her home had been used as a therapist’s office, for which a side door would be helpful, and she acknowledged that it now made it easier to “host Google interns.”11 Despite the holes in her story, the media clung to these details. “You can’t make that stuff up. It is so unusual,” said ABC’s legal analyst Sunny Hostin. “I found her to be one of the most credible witnesses I think I’ve seen.”12

NBC’s Kasie Hunt noted that Jeff Flake looked “pained” during Ford’s testimony. The Republicans, she said, knew that Ford’s perceived credibility was so high that it did not “bode well for Judge Kavanaugh ultimately sitting on the Supreme Court.”13

Outside of newsrooms, the view was much different. “You know that woman is lying, don’t you?” Melania Trump said to her husband, echoing a perspective held by millions of other women and men who were silenced in media discussions that day.

As much as the media loved Ford, they hated Mitchell, often faulting her for the procedure, over which she had no control. After the fifteen-minute break, Mitchell resumed her questioning along the same lines as earlier. Kind and deferential, Mitchell asked where she lived, how she had obtained therapy records, and about her reported fear of flying. Someone close to Ford had tipped off a government attorney that she flew “all the time,” including on single-propeller airplanes over the ocean. This person had flown with Ford for years and never heard about her fear of flying. That information was passed along to the Senate Judiciary Committee before the hearing.

“May I ask, Dr. Ford, how did you get to Washington?” Mitchell said gently.

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