Politics & Elections

Grassley Schedules Kavanaugh Vote Less Than 24 Hours After Ford Hearing

Chairman Charles Grassley conducts a markup of the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 13, 2018, in Washington, DC.
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The word “chickenshit” became one of the operative adjectives and “sham” a widely-used noun overnight after it was learned late Tuesday that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had hired an outside female prosecutor to grill Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during a hearing scheduled for Thursday and then proceed to a committee vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Friday morning, less than a day later.

Responding to the scheduling of the vote for less than 24 hours after Kavanaugh and Ford testify over accusations he sexually assaulted her when the two were in high school, Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democrat from California and only one of four women on the committee, said, “This means little to no chance for the American people to contact them and weigh in. This is a sham.”

“For Republicans to schedule a Friday vote on Kavanaugh today, 2 days before Dr. Blasey Ford has had a chance to tell her story, is outrageous,” echoed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), the committee’s ranking member. “First Republicans demanded Dr. Blasey Ford testify immediately. Now they don’t even need to hear her before they move ahead with a vote.”

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called it “astounding” for Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the committee, to bring a final vote on Kavanaugh before the senators even had the opportunity to hear Ford’s testimony.

“Kavanaugh faces mounting allegations that have not been properly investigated and vast amounts of his record remain concealed,” Clarke said. “This process defies the principles of fairness, transparency and due process that should be in place for any nomination to our nation’s highest Court.”

By hiring the outside female prosecutor—whose identity was initially kept a secret but revealed late Tuesday evening to be Rachel Mitchell, a career sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona—the GOP Senator Majority Mitch McConnell was taken to task for operating a major “chickenshit” and “cowardly” operation: