Washington
\nPresident Donald Trump\u2019s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was thrust into turmoil on Sunday after the woman accusing him of high school-era sexual misconduct told her story publicly for the first time.<\/p>\n
Democrats immediately called for a delay in a key committee vote set for this later week and a Republican on the closely divided panel said he\u2019s \u201cnot comfortable\u201d voting on the nomination without first hearing from the accuser.<\/p>\n
The woman, Christine Blasey Ford, told The Washington Post in her first interview that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed at a Maryland party they attended in the early 1980s, clumsily tried to remove her clothing and put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.\u201d Ford, 51 and a clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, says she was able to get away after a friend of Kavanaugh\u2019s who was in the room jumped on top of them and everyone tumbled.<\/p>\n
Kavanaugh, 53 and a federal appeals judge in Washington, on Sunday repeated an earlier denial of Ford\u2019s allegation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time,\u201d Kavanaugh said through the White House.<\/p>\n
The allegation first came to light late last week in the form of a letter that has been in the possession of Sen Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, for some time.<\/p>\n
The committee recently concluded four days of public hearings on the nomination and the panel\u2019s Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, scheduled a Thursday vote on whether to recommend that the full Senate confirm Kavanaugh for a lifetime appointment to the nation\u2019s highest court.<\/p>\n
Democrats, led by New York Sen Chuck Schumer, immediately called for it to be postponed, though Republicans gave no indication Sunday that they would accede to the calls by Democrats, most of whom already publicly oppose Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said late Sunday that Grassley is trying to arrange separate, follow-up calls with Kavanaugh and Ford, but just for aides to Grassley and Feinstein, before Thursday\u2019s scheduled vote.<\/p>\n
Sen Jeff Flake, R-Ariz, a committee member, told The Washington Post and Politico in interviews Sunday that he\u2019s \u201cnot comfortable\u201d voting for Kavanaugh until he learns more about the allegation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with Senator Flake that we should delay this week\u2019s vote,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of information we don\u2019t know and the FBI should have the time it needs to investigate this new material.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another Republican member, Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said he\u2019s willing to hear from Ford provided that it\u2019s \u201cdone immediately\u201d to keep the confirmation process on track.<\/p>\n
Critics have accused the GOP of fast-tracking the process to get Kavanaugh on the court by October 1, the first day of the fall term.<\/p>\n
Senate Republicans, along with the White House, see no need to postpone voting over what they consider uncorroborated and unverifiable accusations, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorised to speak publicly.<\/p>\n
In considering their options on Sunday, Republicans largely settled on the view that Ford\u2019s story alone was not enough to delay Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation.<\/p>\n
Grassley could invite Ford to testify, likely in closed session before Thursday. Kavanaugh would also probably be asked to appear before senators.<\/p>\n
The panel would also likely seek testimony from Mark Judge, Kavanaugh\u2019s friend and classmate who Ford says jumped on top of her and Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington President Donald Trump\u2019s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was thrust into turmoil on Sunday after the woman accusing him of high school-era sexual misconduct told her story publicly for the first time. Democrats immediately called for a delay in a key committee vote set for this later week and a Republican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42291,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42289\/revisions\/42291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}