‘I can’t recall whether she saw them directly or whether I just told her what they said…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Largely coming off as sympathetic, composed and confident during opening testimony, California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford described her memories of the alleged incident that occurred in the summer of 1992 after a day of swimming at the Columbia Country Club.
While she did not add many additional details of the assault itself from what already had been reported in her Washington Post narrative, she attempted to lend credibility to the story and put a personal face on it.
“Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter—the uproarious laughter between the two and their having fun at my expense,” she recounted, describing how the 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, pinballed down the stairs afterward.
She also described having a second encounter with Judge after the episode at the Potomac Village Safeway, where he worked.
“I was with my mother, and I was a teenager, so I wanted her to go in one door and me the other. I chose the wrong door,” she said.
After running into Judge, she said, “His face was white and very uncomfortable saying hello back… He was just nervous and not wanting to speak with me—he looked a little bit ill.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, during his five minutes of questioning, called on Judge to come forward.
“Mark Judge should be subpoenaed from his Bethany Beach hideaway and required to testify, but he has not.”
Interrogator Rachel Mitchell interacted cordially with Ford while asking questions that were intended to put holes in her testimony, asking her about inconsistencies in the time frame and the fact that she claimed to have heard a conversation downstairs despite the loud music coming from the room where she claimed to be assaulted.
One line of questioning seemed to be directed toward the accuracy of the counseling notes that Ford referred to as corroborating her previous disclosure of the assault episode. There seemed to be a question as to whether she specifically named Kavanaugh in them or whether she just said generically that a federal judge had assaulted her.
Ford said she had consulted her counseling notes with the counselor after the fact using an online module to confirm what she had said, and although her interview with the Washington Post happened only two weeks ago, she could not recall if the reporter had a copy of the notes or if they were just summarized.
“I can’t recall whether she saw them directly or whether I just told her what they said.”
Mitchell also followed up on Ford’s fear of flying, which she claimed had prevented her from testifying earlier.
“I eventually was able to get up the gumption with the help of some friends and get on the plane.”
Mitchell followed up by asking about her frequent traveling for vacation and yearly trips to visit her family on the East Coast.
“It’s easier to travel the other way … when it’s on a vacation,” she said.