Thread by @courtneymilan

Grassley definitely starting this hearing off by asking for civility and then lecturing everyone.

“Let’s be civil, and by civil I mean I get to whine about my issues and you shut up.”

#fordhearing

This idea that people who were victims need to investigate their own crimes and pay their attorneys to get evidence is just bullshit.

This is why they’re asking for investigations. To develop the record.

Not for the conclusions that Grassley decries.

Grassley is saying that if you’re a victim coming forward here, you’ll need six figures worth of work in order to be heard.

And then he wonders why nobody comes forward.

Feinstein quoting her Republican colleagues saying they don’t really care what she says.

Frontman pointing out this is about Kavanaugh’s credibility and honesty, quoting people who call him a liar about drinking.

“You can’t lie your way onto the Supreme Court,” is Feinstein’s kicker. “It’s about the integrity of that institution,” she says.

Feinstein asks majority to open their mind.

Grassley says we will consider other issues at other times. He’s swearing in the witnesses.

WILL WE GRASSLEY.

Dr. Blasey says that she anticipates she will need caffeine after her statement.

Her voice breaks slightly as she says “I am terrified.”

I’m not going to detail her statement. You’ve heard it. She’s holding together.

Just a note: Grassley read the statement and also mentioned she had received death threats, and still managed to criticize her for not dropping everything on his schedule.

She’s done with her statement. Grassley says he’ll let everyone have time to finish questions fully regardless of time.

Rachel Mitchell is up. She says that she is sorry that Dr. Blasey is terrified. She sets up guidelines: ask for info, correct me if I’m wrong, not asking for guesses.

She’s showing her a screenshot of What’s App from the Washington Post. Dr. Ford is reading them for corrections.

Next is the letter to Feinstein. She asks if she wrote it on July 30th. She is reading the letter.

While she is reading: her one correction from the What’s App conversation with the WaPo was that she called someone a bystander who wasn’t a bystander.

Feinstein is up.

Dr. Ford says that anxiety, phobia, and PTSD, specifically claustrophobia have plagued her.

She details that in the four years after the assault, she struggled academically and socially.

Asks about the need to remain confidential. She said she wanted the information forward prior to selection but unsure how to do so.

Says she decided to come forward when reporters were talking to her dog through her window, and reporter approached and she thought she was a student.

Feinstein asks how she is sure that it was Brett Kavanaugh.

She replies with a pretty sciency response about stress locking in memories.

Back to Mitchell. She finishes three minor notes on the letter to Feinstein.

Mitchell asks if she had drinks/medication before the gathering. And who she expected to be there.

Asks about the atmosphere at the gathering. She responds that Judge and Kavanaugh were inebriated.

She says it was “not really a party”—just a gathering, that would lead to a party later on.

Asks if music/TV playing.

It’s now Leahy’s turn.

Least asks once again for an FBI investigation, and then take the time to have witnesses testify.

Refers to Senate failing Anita Hill.

Leahy says people are inspired by her courage and that bravery is contagious.

Leahy asks how she knew Kavanaugh and Judge.

Says the person who introduced her to Kavanaugh and Judge was the man unfairly blamed for being a doppelgänger.

Dr. Ford says that the strongest memory is the laughter at her expense at how fun it was.

They’re talking about sound in the house, and whether she could have heard people talking from the upstairs bathroom.

They’re talking about a map, and then it moves to Durbin.

Durbin asks her about the doppelgänger theory: she says she is 100% certain it was Kavanaugh.

She says that she saw Mark Judge at a Safeway where he was working. She said hello. His face was white; he was very uncomfortable to see her.

She says it was six to eight weeks after the incident when she said Judge.

Durbin is done; Grassley gets grumpy about something Durbin says and has to snap back.

Break for 15 minutes.

I just want to say that everything about Dr. Blasey’s demeanor is extraordinary. Her willingness to please, her desire to be as accurate as she can be, even without perfect memory.

The way it is obvious that her own research is driven by a desire to understand and label her brain. The fact that she is quite possibly the smartest person in the room.

I truly believe that having a trauma expert testify would be helpful, but the irony is that the Senate has one. Right there. On the stand.

I don’t know if the Senate realizes this, but every survivor of assault and harassment feels as if she is speaking a language that we all have in common.

We are back.

Looking at maps. Senator Harris points out that they do not have this. They ask if someone drove her, and she says they must have done so.

She says she has guessed at the time by knowing she did not have a drivers license.

Talking about the therapist’s record. She is asking what the reporter saw, which Dr. Blasey could not know.

She has shown those records to counsel.

Talking about the 4 boys in therapist’s notes.

Senator Whitehouse is up now. He says that sincere and thorough investigation is critical.

Whitehouse says she meets all the standards for credibility, and that she meets all the standards to go forward with her claims.

It breaks my heart that she says “I could be more helpful” if there were an FBI investigation.

Whitehouse says this is wildly unusual, possibly the first time this has happened.

Whitehouse says that he will push for that investigation, however long it takes.

Grassley cannot let this pass so he is pretending that reciting what he did is different than like having Mark Judge here to be questioned.

Grassley cannot pronounce Brett Kavanaugh’s name. Is he a fan of dog rates by chance?

THEY ARE GOOD INVESTIGATIONS, BRETT

Mitchell is back. She’s again asking what she showed the Washington Post. Dr. Ford doesn’t remember.

Mitchell asks if other things have contributed to PTSD and anxiety.

Dr. Blasey says that it was a critical risk factor, but that there are other risk factors.

Dr. Blasey says she can’t rule out biological predisposition but cannot think of anything environmental.

Mitchell asks about her fear of flying. She overcame it to come here.

I have a friend who has claustrophobia who flies regularly, and this line of questioning pisses me off.

Klobuchar asks if she could explain why she wanted a polygraph examination.

Klobuchar says statements made to medical professionals are given greater weight.

Ford says that she talked to her therapists about it more than twice, but that their records only reflected it twice.

Klobuchar asks what she remembers. She remembers the placement of the bed, the attempts to escape, and the laughter.

God Grassley has to interject now and says that he has to make clear that in fact he would NOT have required her to fly.

Mitchell asks if she contacted Senate or President or Congress about her assault before July 6th, and when she says no, asks why she contacted WaPo.

She got advice from friends on the beach about how to proceed, because she didn’t know. Neither person (congresswoman or WaPo) got back to her before the nominee was chosen.

Lots of questions on timeline of when and why she contacted whom.

Coons is up. He clarified that she first reached out was when he was on the short list, not at the 11th hour.

Coons asks what impact this has had. She talks about the academic impact first.

She says there’s long term anxiety and relationship impacts.

Coons asks her about boys being boys. She says it has impacted her greatly, as she was very young.

Dr. Blasey says on July 30th when she sent the letter that she did not yet have a lawyer and didn’t know why she would need one.

She asks how often she spoke to Feinstein; Dr. Blasey said she spoke to Feinstein once.

Asks if she spoke to any other person about allegations. She says no, aside from lawyers.

She says she did not talk to her parents about it, and interviewed lawyers in the parking lot and in her car.

Mitchell asks why she decided to have a lawyer: she says the people she talked to said she needed one.

Blumenthal is next. He says that she is powerful and credible and that he is grateful for her teaching. Says that we should be proud of what she has done.

He says that he is impressed with her honesty and the ways he emphasizes what she cannot remember.

Blumenthal quotes Lindsey Graham’s book about how much courage it takes to come forward and says she has earned America’s gratitude.

Blumenthal says Trump’s failure to ask for FBI investigation is tantamount to a cover up.

Dr. Blasey says that she underwent a polygraph test because she did not see a reason not to. She has never taken a polygraph test.

She says that she didn’t choose him herself. She took the polygraph the day of or after her grandmother’s funeral.

Has anyone given her tips about how to take a polygraph? She says no.

I think America just realized that in the midst of wrestling with this situation, her grandmother died.

They ask if she was audio/videoed during the recording. She says that she remembers crying and being hooked up to the machine but she was focusing on her fear.

We have a half hour recess for lunch now.

I think America is learning what an incredible, amazing, powerful witness Dr. Blasey is.