There are a few trends that have emerged in the rounds of questioning by Democrats, during the hearing for Christine Blasey Ford, who’s accused Brett Kavanaugh of groping her when they were both teenagers.
Throughout the hearing, Democrats asked Blasey Ford questions that gave her the opportunity to assert that she clearly remembers the assault and her attacker, as well as the time to explain how the incident impacted her and why she eventually came forward about the alleged assault.
How Deeply The Alleged Assault Is Burned Into Her Memory
One of the standout moments of the hearing Thursday morning was Christine Blasey Ford’s answer to a question by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT): What did she remember most strongly from the night she was allegedly assaulted?
“Indelible” in her memory, Blasey Ford testified, was the “uproarious laughter” of Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge during the alleged attack. Blasey Ford described “their having fun at my expense.”
(Kavanaugh and Judge have denied the incident.)
She was given other opportunities to stress how confident she was in her memory that it was Kavanaugh who had groped her. Kavanaugh allies have suggested that Blasey Ford may have mistaken the identity of her attacker. She said she was “100 percent” certain that Kavanaugh was the one who assaulted her.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) turned his questioning to why certain aspects of traumatic events are remembered vividly by victims, while other pieces of the memory are not.
Throughout these questions, Blasey Ford exhibited her credentials as a psychology professor, at times using medical terms to describe how she remember the event.
I was “definitely experiencing the fight-or-flight mode” Blasey Ford said.
How The Assault Has Affected Her Going Forward
Blasey Ford, in response to questions from Democrats, recounted the effect the alleged assault had on her life going forward.
“For me, personally, anxiety, phobia, and PTSD-like symptoms are the types of things that I have been coping with,” Blasey Ford said. “More specifically, claustrophobia, panic, and that type of thing.”
These symptoms were why Blasey Ford insisted on a second door in her house during a home renovation, prompting the disagreement with her husband that surfaced the account of the assault in their 2012 therapy session.
“Our home does not look aesthetically pleasing from the curb,” Blasey Ford said, with a smile, to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
The Lack of An FBI Investigation
A major point Democrats harped on again and again is that President Trump refused to ask the FBI to conduct an investigation of Blasey Ford’s allegations, as apart of the background investigations the FBI typically does on nominees.
Grassley interjected a number of times to defend the committee’s own attempts to vet Blasey Ford’s claims. The witness herself had the chance to say why she had requested, unsuccessfully, an FBI probe before testifying.
“I feel like it would — I could be more helpful if that was the case in providing some of the details that maybe people are wanting to know about,” Blasey Ford said.
Democrats also brought up repeatedly that Mark Judge had not been required to testify in front of the committee under oath.
That She Was Not Part Of A Conspiracy To Sink Kavanaugh
Blasey Ford, during Democrats’ questioning, was able to go through the timeline of how she came forward with the allegations, and why she wanted them to remain confidential at first as well as her reasons for eventually publicly identifying herself as the accuser.
In doing this, Blasey Ford highlighted that she initially wanted to offer the information before he was chosen as Trump’s nominee, and while there was a list of other candidates from whom Trump could have selected.
“My original intent was to get the information [to Senators] when there was still a list of other candidates available,” Blasey Ford told Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
