Kavanaugh testimony could be "more dramatic" than his accuser's, Jodi Kantor says
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee may be "more dramatic" than that of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, according to New York Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor. A lawyer for Ford, who claims Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school, tells the Senate that Ford will not testify before Thursday.
"My cautious prediction, because none of us know what will happen in the next week, is that his testimony could be even more riveting than hers," Kantor, who's also a CBS News contributor, told "CBS This Morning."
"Because what we can basically see is that she will get up and tell the same story that she told to the Washington Post, which is a story that we already know. However, he's issued this kind of sweeping blanket denial, and there are a lot of questions that are going to be asked about him, you know, how familiar were you in high school, really this party didn't happen at all, the allegation is that you were very drunk. If you were drunk how would you remember anyway?" Kantor said.
Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, recounted her story from the early 1980s to the Washington Post, telling them Kavanaugh groped her after he and his friend corralled her into a bedroom while "stumbling drunk." "I thought he might inadvertently kill me… He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing," Ford said. Kavanaugh said he "categorically and unequivocally" denies the allegation.
The potential hearing comes 27 years after Anita Hill testified about sexual misconduct during the Clarence Thomas confirmation.
"Here we are almost a year after the Me Too movement caught fire around the world, and it feels like we're returning to the original ground zero of these Supreme Court nomination hearings," said Kantor, who co-wrote the first story about sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, which fueled the Me Too movement. "And the question to watch for in the next week is, is this a repeat of the Anita Hill dynamic?"
Neither side wants that, Kantor added.
"The Republican senators don't want to look like clueless and insensitive men, grilling a woman. They may end up that way anyway. And certainly what Dr. Ford's lawyers have suggested is that she doesn't want to be subjected to that kind of treatment either," Kantor said.
While Kantor said things have "shifted considerably" in the last year and since the Hill testimony, "the thing we see again and again that never seems to change is that it is so hard for women to come forward."
"Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is someone who's really struggled with the decision about whether to go public or not," Kantor said.
She also pointed out the public's response to Ford has been different from Hill's.
"[Ford] has been attacked. She has been threatened, but there's also been a lot of sensitivity and sympathy and she's being hailed by some people as a hero for coming forward," Kantor said.