Christine Blasey Ford alleges that nearly 40 years ago Brett Kavanaugh, who was 17 years old at the time, tried to sexually assault her. Alcohol was involved; Kavanaugh was reportedly a drunken mess. Christmas has come early for Democrats. They’re going to Me Too Kavanaugh, score points with their liberal base, and whip up college-educated urban women in times for the 2018 midterms, right? The GOP will buckle under the pressure, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Jeff Flake, will break ranks. Flake being the most key since he’s the GOP’s winning vote on Judiciary. None of that is happening. The GOP is united. Flake said if Ford is a no-show for the hearing the committee is setting aside to deal with these allegation, postponing the original committee vote on the nomination, which was slated for today (Flake supported this), then he’s going to back his party’s push to get Kavanaugh through. It’s easy. Ford can’t remember who threw the party, why they were having the party, or how she got there. Three witnesses she identified said they have no recollection of the incident, nor are they sure there was even a party. It’s shoddy. It’s thin. It’s unprovable. It has a long shelf life, but the GOP sees right through this. Democrats want an FBI investigation. Why? There’s no federal crime. As Ed noted over at Hot Air, at most, this is an attempted aggravated assault charge, a state charge whose statute of limitations has long expired. The FBI even said this is a political issue, not one relating to law enforcement; they’re steering clear. And here’s where Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Senate Judiciary Committee chair, delivers the deathblow to this absurd pivot from the Left. They can’t force an executive branch entity to conduct a politically motived investigation and bypassing their constitutionally prescribed duty because Democrats don’t like someone.
From Grassley’s office [emphasis mine]:
“We have no power to commandeer an executive branch agency into conducting our due diligence. The job of assessing and investigating a nominee's qualifications in order to decide whether to consent to the nomination is ours, and ours alone,” Grassley said in the letter.
Grassley has invited Democrats to participate in the Committee’s investigation into allegations involving Judge Brett Kavanaugh brought to Ranking Member Feinstein’s attention in July, but only shared with the rest of the Judiciary Committee after Feinstein passed them off to the FBI last week.
“As is standard practice, we invited the Minority staff to participate and ask Judge Kavanaugh its own questions, but the Minority staff declined. The Majority staff has also sought to set up interviews with Dr. Ford, Mark Judge and two other alleged witnesses. The Minority staff is welcome to participate in the investigative process as well, but it has thus far declined.”
From colleague Shannon Bream. New letter from Grassley to Feinstein. Asks Feinstein for a copy of letter sent by Ford to Feinstein on July 30. Tells Feinstein "I must review the unredacted letter..immediately" in preparation for Monday's scheduled hearing
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) September 19, 2018
Grassley letter to Dems on Kavanaugh: We have no power to commandeer an Executive Branch agency into conducting our due diligence. The job of assessing and investigating a nominee's qualifications in order to decide whether to consent to the nomination is ours, and ours alone
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) September 19, 2018
Also, the letter Ford wrote, which Feinstein had in her possession since July, but didn’t release it, hasn’t been turned over yet to others on the committee. Why did you wait so long, Dianne? Is it because maybe even you and others in your office thought the allegation was so thin and unprovable that it lacked standing during the frenetic and tedious hearings this month? Maybe. Either way, the FBI route the Democrats want to take to delay and hopefully kill this nomination is over. Not going to happen. And Grassley’s right—this isn’t what the FBI does. Also, Democrats still not cooperating with GOP attempts to get to the truth, huh? Sounds typical, and totally exposes their playbook on this front. It's appalling. Also, did you notice how the talking points changed from 'she deserves to be heard' to 'how dare you for asking her questions about his incident you're traumatizing her.'
She has no intention of testifying, ever. https://t.co/0CMJdTkfIU
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) September 20, 2018
In a single day!! And the press just went with it. https://t.co/O9SLp2ufoq
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) September 20, 2018
Am I wrong or did Dems' messaging shift from "hear what she has to say" to "how dare you ask to hear what she has to say" https://t.co/SxvX2nIUPB
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) September 19, 2018
They really do not even care if it's true. https://t.co/WYWrc2LyHI
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) September 20, 2018
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