Testifying before the Senate on Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford recalled the story of her alleged sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh as a teenager and described the trauma of having to relive that experience at a public hearing aired live on TV.
For some on the far-right, her account was mockable. In Twitter posts, they heaped scorn on Blasey Ford as a Democratic Party pawn who was unreliable because some details of the 36-year-old account changed over multiple retellings.
At one point Ford, a psychologist, said that what stuck with her most is the “uproarious laughter” Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge shared during the alleged assault.
“’Indelible in the hippocampus’ Ford says,” tweeted conservative radio host Buck Sexton. “She is an expert in memory, you see, but is missing some very important memories here.”
Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin joked about the “giant black hole through which” the details of Ford’s account “disappeared.”
The "details" of Dr. Ford's victimization are so "seared" into her memory that the searing created a giant black hole through which all of the actual details disappeared.
Amazing.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) September 27, 2018
Several others mocked Ford as faking the emotion she expressed while reading her prepared statement and answering questions.
“I wonder if she cried the first hundred times she practiced the stmt prepared by her lawyers for her to read?” legal blogger Scott Greenfield wrote.
“Oooo I’m such a baby that I need coffee in order to stop fake crying and I’m going to use a baby voice so you all think I’m a little girl,” Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer said in one of a stream of mocking tweets.
“I’m laughing,” senior Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter said in response to author Molly Jong-Fast’s tweet: a photo of Ford speaking captioned “I’m crying.”
I'm laughing https://t.co/zv6EpjpFQp
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) September 27, 2018
Stefan Molyneux, a prominent voice on the far-right, claimed that Ford was only providing this account publicly because “the Democrats hate Kavanaugh, and she is a Democrat.”
Dem Senator: “You have nothing to gain by making these accusations.” Um the Democrats hate Kavanaugh, and she is a Democrat, no?
— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) September 27, 2018
Donald Trump Jr. retweeted over a dozen posts casting doubt on Ford’s credibility and noting that she could not recall details of some conversations she had this year. He also joked that she managed to fly to Washington, D.C. for the hearing and make other trips via airplane despite a professed fear of flying.
I’m no psychology professor but it does seem weird to me that someone could have a selective fear of flying.
Can’t do it to testify but for vacation, well it’s not a problem at all.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 27, 2018
Many mainstream conservatives distanced themselves from these critiques and cruel jokes, saying that they found Ford to be a credible, compelling witness.
GOP congressional aides told TPM that the proceedings were a “mess” and that Ford’s testimony “was bad for Kavanaugh and Republicans.”
Fox News’ Brit Hume called her “very sympathetic” in the network’s live coverage, while his colleague Chris Wallace called the hearing “a disaster for the Republicans.”
The National Review Online’s Jonah Golberg wrote that Ford appeared “very sympathetic and sincere.”
BREAKING NEWS: Trolls who make a living being trolls are being awful trolls.
Far-Right Twitter Mocks Blasey Ford For ‘Fake Crying,’ ‘Lying’ About Her Story
The Bard was remarkably prescient:
“…it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
Exactly. Anyone with a job they could be fired from, who isn’t safely ensconced in the bubble of having and audience just as horrible as you, has the good sense to either show empathy or keep their goddamned mouth shut.
Even Fox News has the good sense to quietly bemoan how bad this is for their team (displaying an appalling lack of humanity) and not try to call her a liar while she’s speaking.
Of course if Dr. Ford were briskly composed, they’d say it was clear she had not been affected by an assault and was just a political operative.
Conservatives are monumental and irredeemable assholes.