Judiciary Committee Hearings: Kavanaugh Explodes

Last week, I finished up my classes and was prepared to have a nice relaxing weekend. It was a tough week, like any other week in college, so it was nice to look forward to a few days without any stress. 

Until I heard about the Judiciary Committee Hearings.

For those of you living under a really big rock, this was the Committee hearing that was going to vote on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for a seat on the Supreme Court. The big problem is that he is being accused of sexual assault by a former high school classmate, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. 

Dr. Ford went before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday to give her testimony. Her recollection of what she faced was clearly spoken and articulated. She says that she is 100% positive that it was Kavanaugh who was the one who assaulted her. She was credible, sympathetic, and heroic in her testimony. She admitted that her life and her families were uprooted by this accusation. 

Due to what she was accusing Kavanaugh of, and the socio-political climate that this country faces right now, the Republican Senators on the Committee, brought in a sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona to ask their questions for them. It was a strange act, understandable because they would have came off as unsympathetic towards Dr. Ford and the Country, but strange nonetheless.

Once Dr. Ford finished her testimony, it was Kavanaugh’s turn; and it was a spectacle to behold. 

Kavanaugh came in with an opening statement that lasted 45 minutes long. Yeah, that long.  It was framed in a way that portrayed him as a sympathetic character in a larger conspiracy, plot, coordinated Democratic hit, whatever you want to call it. He accused the Democrats of orchestrating Dr. Ford coming forward with her story in an attempt to railroad his potential nomination to the Supreme Court. Regardless of what you think on this matter and regardless of what other ridiculous things he did during his testimony, for him to admit that he believes that this is all one big conspiracy, just shows that him and the Republican Senators on that committee (besides Senator Flake, kind of) do not take this or any other sexual assault accusation seriously. Yeah, they commended her for her braveness and her courage to take the gigantic risk that she was taking, but did they mean it? No probably not. The whole time Kavanaugh was being questioned, he did not show any sort of composure, empathy, right attitude, etc. towards the democrats questions. They were trying to get at the heart of what he thinks happened and were basically seeing if he was a credible candidate for the seat. He showed none of those qualities. He consistently was hostile towards their questions, gave vague descriptions, straight up lied, filibustered (a lot), or sometimes just did not answer the question. He was asked if he believes that an FBI investigation would be a smart thing to do, and he sat there for a solid 10 seconds not saying a word. But wouldn’t you want an institution like the FBI to investigate an accusation that you are 100% sure you did not commit? If he is not guilty, then what is the problem? 

Now, as I am writing this, there is an investigation that was approved by Trump. However, it is limited tremendously in scope and length. Right now, they are only able to interview four important witnesses and they only have until the end of the week. Great, just awesome. Definitely how I wanted my Supreme Court Justice to obtain his seat. Under an accusation that there is a very fair chance that he committed and when there is a very good chance the truth will be made public by way of FBI investigation, it is being limited and constricted in every way possible. 

What this all boils down to is that our Government is not taking what could be a very heinous and important accusation, crime basically. They are trying to go ahead and streamline a man to the Supreme Court who showed no judiciary qualities during his hearing. You would think that a man up for a position in the highest law institution in the nation, which lasts for the rest of his life, would show a sense of compassion and willingness to cooperate and understand both sides. But instead he showed his true character that day; he showed that he feels entitled to that position and that he feels he is the true victim in the situation. That is the last thing a Supreme Court Justice should be, greedy and uncompassionate.