WASHINGTON _ Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, testified emotionally and hesitantly Thursday about her memories of the 1982 evening.
"I am here not because I want to be," she told the Senate Judiciary Committee, her voice at times cracking. "I'm terrified."
In describing the alleged assault, Ford, wearing a navy suit and oversized glasses, said she recalled how a drunken Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, laughed as they locked her in a bedroom and pinned her to a bed. "They both seemed to be having a good time," she said.
Both Kavanaugh and Judge have denied the allegations.
Asked later by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., about her most vivid memory of the alleged assault, Ford returned to what she called the "uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense."
She also described the harassment, death threats and other blowback she has endured since coming forward. "I've had to relive my trauma in front of the entire world," she said.
As Ford testified, her training as a research psychologist periodically became obvious. Asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., about the impact that the alleged attack had on her life, Ford referred to the "sequelae" of the attack, a psychology term that refers to the symptoms that can follow a traumatic event. Ford has a doctorate in educational psychology from USC.
The sequelae of sexual assault vary from victim to victim, she noted, adding that in her case, she had suffered from "PTSD-like" symptoms, including claustrophobia.
Later, Feinstein asked how she could be sure that it was Kavanaugh who had put his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming.
"The same way that I'm sure that I'm talking to you right now," she responded. "Basic memory function."
Ford went on to refer to the way neurotransmitters in the brain record memories in the hippocampus, a portion of the brain that plays a central role in human memory.
But her responses were not entirely clinical. Asked by Feinstein if there was a possibility that this could be a case of "mistaken identity," Ford's response was simple.
"Absolutely not."
At times Ford's California informality, nervousness and lack of experience in public speaking contrasted sharply with the usual stiffness of Senate proceedings in Washington. She joked about needing caffeine, referred to childhood "beach friends," spoke of her fear of flying and often took deep breaths. At one point she drew sympathetic laughter when she asked for the definition of "exculpatory evidence."
She said events regarding her coming forward publicly unfolded so quickly this summer that she was interviewing potential attorneys from her car in a Walgreens parking lot while on vacation.
Democrats praised Ford's "courage" for testifying. "You have given America an amazing teaching moment," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Ford, causing her to choke back tears.
Ford's combination of emotional fragility _ evident in her face and voice _ and her precise recall of certain facts and details made the California professor a powerful witness that Republicans may have a difficult time dismissing.
Ford had not been seen or heard in public since her story gained the national spotlight two weeks ago.
The highly anticipated showdown between Ford and Kavanaugh has upended the plans of Senate Republicans who, clinging to a narrow majority, hoped to swiftly confirm a staunchly conservative jurist for a lifetime seat on the high court.
Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the committee, opened the hearing by apologizing to both Kavanaugh and Ford for the intense media scrutiny and threats they've had to endure. He also called on fellow members to maintain civility, but then launched into a partisan attack on how Democrats handled the allegations, which became public days before the committee planned to vote on Kavanaugh.
Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the committee, defended her action, saying she kept the allegations confidential at the request of Ford.
"How women are treated in the United States with this kind of concern is wanting a lot of reform," Feinstein said.
In her opening statement, Ford thanked Feinstein for her discretion. "Sexual assault victims should be able to decide for themselves whether their private experience is made public."
People lined up for hours Thursday morning to get into the Dirksen Senate Office Building where the hearing will be held, but fewer than 50 seats were available inside the small committee room. Many said on social media they came with plans to protest in in the nearby Hart office building, where their voices will carry through the soaring atrium, before marching over to the Supreme Court.
Inside the committee room, actress Alyssa Milano waited for the proceedings to start. She was attending as a guest of Feinstein. Milano has been an outspoken activist in the #MeToo era, including protesting on Capitol Hill in recent days, and said she wanted to be in the room as moral support for Ford. "Any time people are talking about issues of sexual harassment, assault and abuse, it helps," Milano said. "Progress often lives in the gray areas and I do think that this is helpful."
The committee has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, and the Republican majority _ all of whom are men _ recruited Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona, to conduct the questioning for them.
Mitchell's questioning of Ford was limited to five-minute segments, since she was effectively filling the time afforded to Republican members of the committee. As a result, she frequently had to interrupt her examination, sometimes in the middle of question, to allow a Democratic lawmaker to ask questions for five minutes.
During a break in Ford's testimony, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, inadvertently demonstrated why GOP leaders opted to leave their questioning of Ford to Mitchell rather than do it themselves. Republicans feared the image of older, male senators grilling Ford, as occurred during the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearing in 1991.
Asked if he found Ford credible, Hatch said, "I think she's an attractive, good witness." Asked to clarify what he meant by attractive, Hatch added, "In other words, she is pleasing."
But generally there were stark differences between the examinations of Ford and Hill, who endured a relentless pounding from Republican senators. The late Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania accused Hill of committing "flat-out perjury" in her claim that Thomas had sexually harassed her at work.
In the past week, two other women have come forward to lodge similar allegations against Kavanaugh that involve heavy drinking and abusive behavior. Deborah Ramirez told the New Yorker of a humiliating sexual incident when she was a freshman at Yale and joined a drinking game with several others, including Kavanaugh. On Wednesday, Julie Swetnick filed a sworn declaration in which she recalled being at several parties where Kavanaugh and Judge were drunk and abused young women who were also drunk.
While those reports will loom over the hearing, the committee hearing is expected to focus only on Ford's allegations.
In his opening statement, Kavanaugh is expected to call the accusations "last-minute smears, pure and simple. ... There has been a frenzy to come up with something _ anything, no matter how far-fetched or odious _ that will block a vote on my nomination. ... Such grotesque and obvious character assassination _ if allowed to succeed _ will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country."
"Dr. Ford's allegation goes back 36 years," he said in his statement. "I was not perfect in those days, just as I am not perfect today. I drank beer with my friends. Sometimes I had too many. ... But that's not why we are here today. ... I never did anything remotely resembling what Dr. Ford describes."
