Anita Hill: ‘Push the pause button’ on Kavanaugh hearing Monday

Anita Hill said the Senate should push pause on the hearing for sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh next Monday.

“Push the pause button on this hearing, get the information together, bring in the experts,” Hill told ABC Wednesday.

“Put together a hearing that is fair, that impartial, that is not biased by politics or by men and bring this information to the American public,” she added.

{mosads}Democrats have been advocating to push back the hearing, calling for an FBI investigation into Christine Blasey Ford’s claim Kavanaugh attempted to sexually assault her at a party in the early 1980s. 

The FBI has said the matter is closed and outside its jurisdiction.

“The allegation does not involve any potential federal crime,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. 

Still, Ford said late Tuesday night that she will not testify until the FBI complete an investigation.  

Republicans have resisted calls to push back the hearing, saying that Democrats are only trying to further delay a vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which Republicans were expected to win easily.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) brought Ford’s allegations onto the national stage one week before Kavanaugh’s scheduled confirmation vote, which was originally set for this Thursday and has been pushed back to accommodate the hearing next Monday.

Feinstein, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had the allegations since July. 

Democrats and Hill, who accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her in the midst his confirmation process, argue some sort of further investigation is necessary to determine the validity of Ford’s accusations. 

Republicans have contended that there is nothing to investigate, given that Ford has stated that she cannot recall when or where the alleged assault occurred, making it almost impossible to locate corroborating evidence.

“Nothing the FBI or any other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr. Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for any further delay,” the committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said late Tuesday, noting that Ford’s testimony would only involve her personal knowledge of the alleged event.

Republicans warned earlier Tuesday that they will move forward with the Monday hearing, with or without Ford’s testimony.

Kavanaugh has agreed to testify at the hearing and has unequivocally denied Ford’s accusations.