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发帖数: 61690 | 1 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is rejecting a request from Democrats to delay
a Thursday hearing where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine
Blasey Ford are set to testify.
Grassley sent a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat
on the committee, saying he would "respectfully decline" her request to
postpone until the White House ordered an investigation into two sexual
misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh.
"I respectfully decline your request. I am not going to silence Dr. Ford
after I promised and assured her that I would provide her a safe,
comfortable, and dignified opportunity to testify," Grassley wrote in the
letter.
The letter was sent on Tuesday and publicly released just minutes after
Grassley's office announced it had scheduled a Friday committee vote on
Kavanaugh's nomination.
Grassley added in his letter to Feinstein that there was "no reason" for
delay the hearing, after lawyers for Ford, one of Kavanaugh's accusers,
agreed to the Thursday date after days of negotiations.
He added delaying a hearing would be "unfair" to Kavanaugh, who has
repeatedly said he is willing to publicly testify in order to clear his name
.
"He has asked the Committee repeatedly for the chance to testify as soon as
possible. He has categorically denied the allegations that have been made
public. ... We can no longer stand in the way of him presenting his
testimony before the Committee," Grassley added.
Feinstein, in her letter to Grassley, which was sent on Sunday, argued that
the hearing should be delayed until the FBI could investigate allegations
from Ford and Deborah Ramirez.
Ford alleges that during a high school party in the early 1980s Kavanaugh
pinned her to a bed and tried to remove her clothes. Ramirez told The New
Yorker in an interview published Sunday that Kavanaugh exposed himself to
her when they were both students at Yale.
Kavanaugh has denied both allegations and Grassley added in his letter that
he didn't think Ramirez's allegation would impact Ford's testimony.
"The obvious connection between the two claims is that Senate Democrats hid
both allegations of misconduct from the Committee and the public," he added. |
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