BRETT Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the Justice of the Supreme Court thought he would get the affirmative votes to be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, especially after how the Republican members of the committee pushed hard to move forward with the vote despite the very powerful and credible testimony of the accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, on the alleged sexual assault committed by Kavanaugh against her.
Oh yes, President Donald Trump and the Republican members of the committee had already been urgently calling for a vote even days, if not weeks, before hearing the testimony of Dr. Ford, and had set to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination the day after the vote.
In the long, excruciatingly painful nine-hour hearing where both Dr. Ford and Kavanaugh were both given the chance to make their opening statements and were questioned by an outside prosecutor retained by the Republican members of the committee and by the senators themselves in a highly politicized and emotionally charged showdown, both the accused and the accuser told the committee the same thing— that Dr. Ford was 100 percent sure that it was Kavanaugh who sexually assaulted her that night in a party, as Kavanaugh himself said he was 100 percent sure it was not him, and that he had never sexualized anyone in his life.
In this case of he-said-she-said, whom do you believe?
Should you believe a woman who was abused as a teenager allegedly by the nominee when he himself was in high school.
Should you believe a woman who, six years before Kavanaugh was to be nominated for SC justice, told her husband, her therapist about her traumatic experience and had named Kavanaugh as the one who sexually assaulted her?
Despite her trauma, she bravely came forward to do her civic duty to inform the public what she knows about Brett Kavanaugh through her representative in Congress when Kavanaugh was just on the shortlist of Trump’s nominees.
She did not want any fame nor fortune, and had nothing to gain by coming forward and speaking the truth. She only had so much to lose — her privacy and that of her family, her safety, her reputation after the stigma of being sexually assaulted.
Though terrified, she shared her story under oath, and answered questions with grace under pressure, candor and the desire to help the nation through the Senate, in making an informed decision on the fitness of Kavanaugh for the lifetime position of Justice of the Supreme Court.
She called for a complete FBI investigation to prove the veracity of her story.
Or should you believe a man who revealed during the confirmation hearing that he flares up when his nomination was challenged, who claimed to respect and sympathize with Dr. Ford but would claim in the hearing that she was just there as part of the grand conspiracy of the Democrats to discredit him as a revenge for Clinton, who talked as though he was entitled to be Justice of the Supreme Court, when in fact this hearing was part of his job interview to determine if he does indeed have all the qualification, character, temperament, integrity and candor required of the position in the High Court?
Would you believe this man who would repeatedly resist a complete FBI investigation when in fact he should welcome and even support it because it would clear his name IF he is indeed telling the truth in his testimony?
Thankfully on Friday, Republican Senator Jeff Flake rocked the boat. After having a sleepless night after hearing the testimonies of both Dr. Ford and Kavanaugh, and after being confronted by two women rape survivors after he said yes he would vote YES to confirm Kavanaugh, Jeff Flake changed his vote to a NO, but said he would support a vote ONLY if the Senate delays the full vote by a week so that the FBI could do an investigation that Dr. Ford deserved, just as the Democrats in the committee have been asking all along.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
Maam Gel, i sent you a letter on your Facebook account. i sent it twice, first on your private messenger, then on your timeline. i was hoping at least i get an acknowledgment you received it. to this day after a week i haven’t received any. so i’m alerting you here in case you might have missed it. if and when you find it and have a chance to read it, will you kindly let me know? otherwise, what’s the use of inviting input from us the public as you do on Facebook only to be ignored if we do so? thank you and i’m looking forward to your response.