In a day like few others in the history of the US, psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford on Thursday said she was “100 percent” certain that US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, while Kavanaugh testified he was “100 percent certain” he did no such thing.
Republicans scheduled a recommendation vote in the US Senate Judiciary Committee for yesterday morning, where they hold an 11-10 majority. A final Senate vote is expected next week, which could seat Kavanaugh on the court shortly after the start of its new term next month.
In the committee’s packed hearing room on Thursday, Kavanaugh and Ford said the alleged assault and the storm of controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse — perhaps the only thing they agreed on during their separate testimonies.
Photo: EPA
Ford spoke about her long-held secret of the alleged assault in a locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15.
The memory was “locked” in her brain, she said.
Despite admitting gaps in her memory, Ford said that she “believed he was going to rape me.”
Photo: AP
Hours later, Kavanaugh denied the accusations, speaking in a defiant tone.
He said that the tactics of those who opposed his confirmation were a “national disgrace.”
He interrupted Democratic senators and dismissed some questions, saying: “You have replaced ‘advice and consent’ with ‘search and destroy,’” referring to the US Constitution’s outline of senators’ duties in confirming high officials.
Photo: EPA
Democrats asked if Kavanaugh would call for an FBI investigation into the claims, to which he answered: “I welcome whatever the committee wants to do.”
Earlier, Ford described what she said was a harrowing assault in the summer of 1982.
She said an inebriated Kavanaugh and another teen, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her.
He put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, she said.
Judge has also denied the allegations.
Later, Kavanaugh entered the committee room and started to testify with a statement he said he had shown only one other person. Almost immediately he choked up.
“My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed,” he said.
He said it was unacceptable how much time it took the committee to convene the hearing after Ford’s allegations emerged, singling out Democrats for “unleashing” forces against him.
Even if senators vote down his confirmation, he said: “You’ll never get me to quit.”
Kavanaugh, who has two daughters, said that one of his girls said they should “pray for the woman” making the allegations against him, referring to Ford.
“That’s a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old,” he said, choking up. “We mean no ill will.”
The judge answered questions about a party atmosphere that has been described at Georgetown Prep and Yale when he attended the institutes.
“Sometimes I had too many beers,” he said. “I liked beer. I still like beer, but I never drank beer to the point of blacking out and I never sexually assaulted anyone.”
Kavanaugh said his family has been threatened since the accusations emerged and his reputation was likely ruined.
It was a “grotesque and coordinated character assassination,” he said. “You may defeat me in the final vote, but you’ll never get me to quit.”
Senator Lindsey Graham was also critical of Democrats.
“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020,” Graham said, pointing at Democratic lawmakers.
Graham said he voted for justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, both nominated by a Democratic president.
“I’d never do to them what you’ve done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics,” he said.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS