Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is rejecting a request from Democrats to delay a Thursday hearing where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford are set to testify.
Grassley sent a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, saying he would “respectfully decline” her request to postpone until the White House ordered an investigation into two sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh.
“I respectfully decline your request. I am not going to silence Dr. Ford after I promised and assured her that I would provide her a safe, comfortable, and dignified opportunity to testify,” Grassley wrote in the letter.
The letter was sent on Tuesday and publicly released just minutes after Grassley’s office announced it had scheduled a Friday committee vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Grassley added in his letter to Feinstein that there was “no reason” for delay the hearing, after lawyers for Ford, one of Kavanaugh’s accusers, agreed to the Thursday date after days of negotiations.
He added delaying a hearing would be “unfair” to Kavanaugh, who has repeatedly said he is willing to publicly testify in order to clear his name.
“He has asked the Committee repeatedly for the chance to testify as soon as possible. He has categorically denied the allegations that have been made public. … We can no longer stand in the way of him presenting his testimony before the Committee,” Grassley added.
Feinstein, in her letter to Grassley, which was sent on Sunday, argued that the hearing should be delayed until the FBI could investigate allegations from Ford and Deborah Ramirez.
Ford alleges that during a high school party in the early 1980s Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and tried to remove her clothes. Ramirez told The New Yorker in an interview published Sunday that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were both students at Yale.
Kavanaugh has denied both allegations and Grassley added in his letter that he didn’t think Ramirez’s allegation would impact Ford’s testimony.
“The obvious connection between the two claims is that Senate Democrats hid both allegations of misconduct from the Committee and the public,” he added.