| | | | 5 big questions about the Kavanaugh hearing | | In six days, the political world -- and the broader world -- will turn to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexual assault, will testify before the assembled senators.
We think.
Ford has yet to respond to the request from Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to appear next Monday to tell the story of her alleged sexual assault. (Her attorney, Debra Katz, said Monday that Ford was willing to publicly testify before Congress.)
Whether or not Ford will actually attend the hearing -- which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted would go forward on Monday -- is the biggest unanswered question heading into next week's hearing, but it's far from the only one. Here are four more.
2. Will Grassley add any more witnesses? There's talk that Mark Judge, Kavanaugh's friend and someone who Ford alleges was in the room when the assault happened, might be called to testify. A lawyer for Judge told CNN on Tuesday that he wasn't speaking publicly to anyone, but Sen. Doug Jones told CNN Tuesday that he thinks Judge should be subpoenaed to testify. Then there is the question of whether the therapist Ford and her husband saw in 2012 might be called. Partial notes from the therapist reviewed by The Washington Post confirmed that Ford talked about the incident, although there was a discrepancy between how many people she now says were in the room and how many the therapist recorded her saying.
3. Will this be a public or a private hearing? On Tuesday, McConnell offered Ford the option of testifying in public or private. Again, her lawyer on Monday said that she was open to a public hearing, but it's not clear whether that may have changed.
4. Will President Donald Trump stay measured? The President has been remarkably measured -- by his own admittedly low standards -- when it comes to the allegations from Ford. "We should go through a process," Trump said Tuesday. "There shouldn't even be a little doubt." But there's a lot of time between now and next Monday. And Trump's Twitter fingers might get itchy.
5. Will Republicans stay unified? At the moment, Senate Republicans and the White House are singing from the same songbook: Bring Ford in, let her tell her story, ask questions and then see what happens from there. Can the GOP keep up that unified front -- with the 2018 election now seven weeks away and concerns about how the Kavanaugh story impacts the party's election prospects growing by the day?
The Point: The hearing is only six days away, supposedly. And the stakes, not just for Kavanaugh and Ford personally but for Trump and both parties, are stupendously large. And yet, uncertainty reigns. This has the makings of high-wire act with no net for everyone involved.
-- Chris | | "When @peta protested my town hall -- and gave away barbecued tofu -- I joked that was because if Beto won, he'd ban BBQ. Lefty commentators and reporters have been melting down, screaming 'not true.' Uh, guys, put your trigger warnings down; it's just a joke!"
-- Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, on Twitter, responding to reports that he said his Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke would "ban barbecue." | | | MORE ON KAVANAUGH'S NOMINATION | | Amid uncertainty over what happens next on Capitol Hill, Tuesday was full of fast-moving developments in the closely-watched and contentious vetting process for Kavanaugh.
Here's the latest on where things stand: - President Donald Trump defended his Supreme Court nominee on Tuesday, saying, "this is not a man who deserves this." The President also threw cold water on the idea that the FBI could investigate the allegations when he said earlier in the day, "I don't think the FBI really should be involved."
- CNN's Jeremy Diamond and Betsy Klein report: "Trump's comments came as Senate Democrats ramped up calls for the White House to direct the FBI to reopen Kavanaugh's background investigation before any hearings on the allegation of sexual assault leveled over the weekend against the Supreme Court nominated judge can proceed."
- Meanwhile, "Republican sources on Capitol Hill say it's uncertain if the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for Monday to address the sexual assault accusation ... will actually occur," CNN's Sophie Tatum, Manu Raju, Phil Mattingly, Sunlen Serfaty and Ariane de Vogue, Ted Barrett and Jim Acosta report.
- Anita Hill, who leveled accusations of sexual harassment against now-Justice Clarence Thomas during televised hearings nearly 30 years ago, wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times that there are ways for the Senate to "do better" than it did in 1991 when she came forward with her allegations, which Thomas denied. CNN's Eli Watkins has more on the op-ed here.
- Controversy over the nomination even made it to the Emmy Awards on Monday when one attendee -- Sarah Sophie Flicker, the wife of "GLOW" director Jesse Peretz -- showed up with a "Stop Kavanaugh" message written on her arm.
Chris weighed in on a Wall Street Journal editorial, which argued that the circumstances don't merit a new hearing or a delayed vote. Chris wrote: "The problem with the editorial ... is this: It makes the argument for less transparency, less disclosure, less light. We can't know who is telling the truth here, so we can't possibly try, is the underlying argument. This is never an acceptable argument when dealing with allegations of sexual assault of the sort Ford is making." | | | Today's topic: Republicans do not want to budge from their Kavanaugh confirmation timeline. | | "Polish President Andrzej Duda urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday during a joint news conference to deploy more US troops and military equipment to Poland, even suggesting the US establish a permanent military base and name it 'Fort Trump.'" CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
"Trump said he is considering Poland's request to establish a permanent US base in that country, but added that Poland 'would pay the United States.' Trump said Duda had offered the US more than $2 billion to set up a base in Poland." | | Quinnipiac University is out with a new poll that shows Republican Sen. Ted Cruz with a 9-point lead among likely voters over Democratic opponent Rep. Beto O'Rourke in the race for the Texas Senate seat currently held by Cruz.
O'Rourke has sparked enthusiasm among Democrats who hope they might win a Senate seat in the red state of Texas, but the Democratic challenge has always been viewed as a long-shot and the poll is likely to reassure Republicans anxious to hold onto the seat.
The poll found that Cruz holds an advantage in the race with a 54-45% likely voter lead over the Democratic contender. | | "President Donald Trump showed no signs of backing off his highly unprecedented order to declassify various documents and text messages related to the Russia investigation Tuesday,'" CNN's Laura Jarrett, Sophie Tatum and Kate Sullivan report. "We want transparency and what I want is I want total transparency," Trump said in the Oval Office Tuesday.
Chris did a Q&A with CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero on why the directive is so unusual.
Here's how Cordero put it: "in the modern history of the intelligence community, it is extraordinary for a president to be involved in day-to-day declassification decisions." | | | From Brenna: "TFW you're trying to get the squad together for a group photo. It happens to you. It happens to me. It happens to President Trump and the President of Poland. Get your squad to follow The Point." | | | | | | |
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