Republicans on Monday abruptly called Brett Kavanaugh and the woman accusing him of sexual assault decades ago to testify publicly next week, grudgingly setting up a dramatic showdown they hoped would prevent the allegation from sinking his nomination to the US Supreme Court.
US Senate leaders announced the move under pressure from fellow Republicans, who wanted a fuller, open examination of the allegations from Christine Blasey Ford, a college professor in California.
After initially suggesting a private conference call on the matter would suffice, US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said his panel would hold a hearing on Monday next week “to provide ample transparency.”
The move forced Republicans to put off a planned committee vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.
The delay makes it increasingly difficult for Kavanaugh to win approval by Oct. 1, when the new session of the US Supreme Court begins.
It also sets up a public, televised airing of sexual misconduct allegations, reminiscent of the seminal hearings against Clarence Thomas in 1991, that could derail Kavanaugh’s nomination altogether.
Just hours earlier, top Republicans had shown no interest in a theatrical spectacle that would thrust Kavanaugh and Ford before TV cameras, with each offering public — and no doubt conflicting and emotional — versions of what did or did not happen at a high-school party in the early 1980s.
Instead, Grassley had said he would seek telephone interviews with Kavanaugh and Ford, winning plaudits from US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for planning to handle the episode “by the book.”
Democrats rejected that plan, saying the seriousness of the charges merited a full FBI investigation.
Republicans had also displayed no willingness to delay a vote that Grassley had planned for tomorrow to advance the nomination, but US President Donald Trump on Monday telegraphed that that schedule might slow.
“If it takes a little delay, it will take a little delay,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
If the timetable slips further, it would become increasingly difficult for Republicans to schedule a vote before the Nov. 6 elections, in which congressional control is at stake.
With fragile Republican majorities of just 11-10 on the US Senate Judiciary Committee and 51-49 in the full US Senate, Republican leaders had little room for defectors without risking a humiliating defeat of Trump’s nominee to replace Anthony Kennedy.
Some Democrats raised questions about whether Grassley’s plan was sufficient.
US Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement on Monday that she was disappointed the FBI and White House “are failing to take even the most basic steps to investigate this matter” and that the process was being rushed.
Another Democrat on the panel, US Senator Richard Blumenthal, said staging the hearing without an FBI investigation would make it a “sham.”
The US Department of Justice said in a statement that the accusation against Kavanaugh “does not involve any potential federal crime.”
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