Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday said that he felt “ambushed” by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee following Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony regarding her sexual assault claims against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“All I can say is that we’re 40-something days away from the election and their goal, not Ms. Ford’s goal, is to delay this past the midterms so they can win the Senate and never allow Trump to fill the seat. I believe that now more than ever,” he told reporters.
{mosads}”And here’s what I’m more convinced of. The friends on the other side set it up to be just the way it is. I feel ambushed as the majority. We’re going to hear from Judge Kavanaugh,” he added.
Ford gave several hours of testimony on Thursday about her accusations against Kavanaugh, who will speak later Thursday afternoon. Ford has said that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party in the 1980s. Kavanaugh denies the allegation.
Graham was visibly angry following Ford’s testimony Thursday as he attacked Democrats for not bringing Ford’s allegations to the attention of GOP senators earlier in Kavanaugh’s confirmation process.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (R-Calif.), the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee and the first senator to learn of Ford’s allegations, has said that she did not disclose the accusations sooner at the request of Ford, who originally wanted them to be kept confidential.
“I’m really upset that they knew about this in August and never told anybody,” Graham said. “I’m really upset that Dianne Feinstein believed this was a credible allegation, that she wouldn’t do Mr. Judge Kavanaugh the service of saying, ‘I’ve got this, what’s your side of the story?’”
Graham also cast doubt on Ford’s allegations during his remarks, calling them uncorroborated.
Ford has said that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed during a party, tried to remove her clothes and put his hand over her mouth as she attempted to yell for help.
“I’ve been a judge, a prosecutor and a defense attorney, and here’s what I’ll tell you. When it comes to where it happened, I still don’t know. I don’t know when it happened. She said she’s 100 percent certain it did happen. I’ll bet you Judge Kavanagh will say, ‘I’m 100 percent sure I didn’t do it,'” Graham said.
He added that “if this is enough, God help anybody else who gets nominated.”
“Based on what I heard today you could not get a search warrant or an arrest warrant because you don’t know the location, you don’t know the time, and you don’t have any corroboration,” he said. He also said the FBI would not be able to investigate based on the information Ford provided. The FBI is not investigating the claim because it does not involve a federal crime.
Graham has been a strong advocate of Kavanaugh even as several sexual misconduct allegations have been made against the nominee. The South Carolina senator has been among the Republicans who question why the accusers didn’t come forward sooner and has suggested the allegations are part of a coordinated “smear” against Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh during his testimony before the committee is expected to deny Ford’s accusations as well as the sexual misconduct accusations against him made this week by Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick.