There’s new evidence for those arguing that Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican Senator from Iowa who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, is being wholly disingenuous about his desire to get to the bottom of the sexual assault accusation by Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and it comes in the form of public statements made by one of his top staffers on the committee who said plainly overnight that the goal of the current process is not to get to the truth of the matter, but to make sure Trump’s right-wing nominee is confirmed regardless of the credible allegations.
“Unfazed and determined. We will confirm Judge Kavanaugh,” tweeted Mike Davis, who serves Grassley as the Chief Counsel for Nominations for the SJC, just after 11 PM on Wednesday.
Hours later, betraying any of the public-facing sympathy that GOP lawmakers on the committee have tried to project regarding Ford, Davis said that while he “personally questioned Judge Kavanaugh under penalty of felony and 5 years of imprisonment, if he lies,” he was frustrated that he had yet to hear back from Ford’s attorneys who, he said derisively, “can’t find time between TV appearances to get back to me.”
As Adam Jentleson, former deputy chief of staff to retired Democratic senator Harry Reid, pointed out in reaction to Davis’ pronouncements, “Grassley and his staff are not making a good faith effort to get the facts – they’re on a mission to confirm their boy, no matter what.”
Not only do the comments reveal open hostility towards Ford, Jentleson argued, they also bolster the complaint by many critics who say the entire process has been a bad-faith effort by Republicans.
“Here is Grassley’s Chief Counsel attacking Ford’s camp and confirming he’s the one who questioned Kavanaugh, presumably hours before cheerleading for him on Twitter,” he added. “Grassley’s process is a sham but I didn’t expect them to broadcast it so openly.”
Due process! They scream, while literally refusing to engage in the PROCESS of investigation into the claim. I will spontaneously combust before this is over*
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) September 19, 2018
Meanwhile, Ford’s attorneys have made it crystal clear what they want. In a letter sent to the committee, they called for a “full investigation by law enforcement officials” to “ensure that the crucial facts and witnesses in this matter are assessed in a non-partisan manner, and that the committee is fully informed before conducting any hearing or making any decisions.”
That both the White House and the GOP-controlled SJC have refused that simple and common-sense request, say critics, reveals something profound about the charade now being orchestrated by Grassley and the party’s political machine.
As Charles Blow writes in the New York Times on Thursday:
What are Republicans hiding about Kavanaugh? What don’t they want you to know? There is absolutely no rush here, no timeline that must be adhered to, no deadline that must be met.
We are talking about a lifetime appointment here, and if Blasey is telling the truth and Kavanaugh has lied, there is absolutely no way he should be confirmed.
And as Esquire’s Charlies P. Pierce wrote on Wednesday, the Republicans are “not interested in a legitimate probe into what Brett Kavanaugh may have done to Christine Blasey Ford,” but that are pushing the process forward to get “a quick and dirty he said-she said proceeding that they all can pretend is an actual inquiry.”
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