OnPolitics Today: '100 percent'

Posted by Anonymous on September 28, 2018

FROM WASHINGTON AND BEYOND

Thursday, September 27

Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27, 2018.

Kavanaugh and his accuser speak

She was calm and careful. He was emotional and angry. Now, senators will decide.

Christine Blasey Ford spoke out Thursday, telling senators at a hearing that she's "100 percent" sure Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee, assaulted her some 35 years ago.

She softly detailed how Kavanaugh allegedly pinned her to a bed, "grinding his hips into me." Ford, a psychology professor, acted as her own expert witness, clinically detailing her own trauma with terms like "sequela" - the aftereffect of an injury - in a testimony laden with heavy and powerful moments.

Kavanaugh testified next.

He burst angrily into an opening statement before going off-script and becoming tearful as he discussed his daughter. He called his accusers part of a "political hit" tied to Hillary Clinton. He evaded questions about calling for an FBI investigation and proclaimed that "you'll never get me to quit."

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Friday on Kavanaugh's confirmation. President Donald Trump urged Republicans to confirm him. It's not clear they have the votes.

Dive into everything we've written on today's Kavanaugh hearing - nearly 40 articles in all - from USA TODAY's Short List.

This is OnPolitics Today.

The politics behind the hearing

We'll defer to this quadruple-bylined analysis from our Washington reporters Richard Wolf, Eliza Collins, Donovan Slack and Tom Vanden Brook:

Many of the senators scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination as early as Friday will be up for election in less than six weeks. Control of the Senate hangs in the balance; a Democratic takeover could block any future Trump nominees.

The biggest prize is the Supreme Court, where Kavanaugh would become the fifth solidly conservative justice ... Whether Kavanaugh survives likely will depend on two or three Republican senators. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both supporters of abortion rights, have remained noncommittal. So has Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona ...

Trump makes Rosenstein wait (again)

Trump postponed a Thursday meeting on his possibly to-be-fired Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, instead planning "to meet next week," a White House spokeswoman said. Rosenstein went to the White House Monday expecting to be fired then. He was not. That came after a report claiming he discussed using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Rosenstein denied the claim.

"My preference would be to keep him," Trump said Wednesday.

Rosenstein oversees the Russia investigation swirling around Trump, and his firing could spark claims of obstruction of justice.

Elsewhere in politics:

•	Trump liked Kavanaugh's aggressive tone
•	Why Republicans kept quoting Biden
•	Images that will define Thursday's hearing
•	Nearly 60 arrested in Kavanaugh protests