[W]hen Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, at least a dozen Vermonters will be in the building supporting her.
Six Vermont women, ranging in age from early 20s to 70s, will hop on a bus early Wednesday morning, make stops across the state, and make an evening arrival in Washington, D.C., where they will be joined by six others who have made their own travel plans, said Kate Lapp, a community coordinator for the group Rights & Democracy.
“Dr. Ford will be testifying. We will be dressed in black in solidarity and urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to believe women, to believe survivors,” Lapp said. “We will be highlighting her story by sitting in key senators’ offices and reading her testimony.”
Rights & Democracy also had representatives at Kavanaugh’s initial Senate hearings, inside the Senate chamber and outside offices of crucial senators. At least one of their members was among the many protesters arrested.
Ford, a research psychologist at Palo Alto University in California, also has company as a named accuser of Kavanaugh. On Sunday, hours after Ford agreed to testify on Thursday, a second woman accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
In an interview with The New Yorker published Sunday evening, Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh, alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh during a drunken college party in his freshman year.
Ramirez said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her while friends yelled “kiss it” at a party in which both Ramirez and Kavanaugh had been drinking.
On Monday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., took to Twitter saying “these mounting allegations are too serious to ignore” and that Republicans should “request an FBI investigation, just as we’ve always done when new derogatory info is uncovered about a nominee.”
.@ChuckGrassley, these mounting allegations are too serious to ignore. We must know the facts before moving forward. It’s past time to request an FBI investigation, just as we’ve always done when new derogatory info is uncovered about a nominee.
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) September 24, 2018
Vermont’s other U.S. senator has also spoken up for Ford and Ramirez. In an interview with VPR on Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he thinks the two women who have accused Kavanaugh must “be treated with a great deal of respect” and that Kavanaugh should have the ability to respond, but “the most important point right now is not to rush this through for political purposes.”
Echoing Leahy’s sentiment, Sanders said any confirmation vote on Kavanaugh should be postponed until there has been a thorough FBI investigation into the allegations, a demand that Senate Republicans have so far refused.
Senate Judiciary chair Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said during last week’s negotiation between Ford’s lawyers there is no need for the FBI to investigate. He said in a statement last week that Ford’s “testimony would reflect her personal knowledge and memory of events” and “nothing the FBI or any other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr. Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for any further delay.”
Although Republican leadership has refused demands to get the FBI involved, Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee members have reached out to the agency this week to learn from its sexual assault experts in order to inform the committee’s understanding of the issues that will be discussed in the hearing.
Kavanaugh has denied the allegations from both women. On Monday, the judge and his wife were interviewed on Fox News, and Kavanaugh said repeatedly he had never sexually assaulted anyone and that he has always treated women with “dignity and respect.”
President Donald Trump Tuesday described the allegations as a “con game” perpetrated by the Democrats.
But Michael Avenatti, the lawyer best known for representing Stormy Daniels, said on Monday that he has a client who has held a number of security clearances in federal government and is willing to come forward before the hearing on Thursday with her own allegations against Kavanaugh.
In an interview on CNN, Avenatti said Kavanaugh’s statement of innocence will “ultimately be shown to be 100 percent demonstrably false” and issued a warning to Trump and other Republicans.
“Let this be a warning to Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh and other surrogates including those on the Senate Judiciary Committee. I will caution you, be very, very careful if you launch some smear campaign against my client because you will be ultimately shown to be a fraud,” Avenatti said.
In spite of these allegations, Republicans say they are confident that Kavanaugh’s confirmation will be approved by the committee on Friday or Saturday.
On Tuesday, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he expects the judge will have enough votes to be confirmed by the Senate before the November midterms.
“We’re going to be moving forward. I’m confident we’re going to win, confident that he’ll be confirmed in the very near future,” McConnell said.
Leahy hit back at McConnell via Twitter on Tuesday evening, saying the “Senate GOP has abandoned even a pretense of treating Dr Ford’s credible allegations seriously, declaring a political victory w/o yet hearing a single minute of testimony.”
If Republicans continue to push forward with a confirmation vote directly after the Thursday hearing, Senate Republicans can expect more protests, said Lapp of Rights & Democracy.
“If there is a vote on Friday I am expecting some nonviolent disobedience to disrupt the vote and at the very least make sure these senators hear our voices,” she said.
