[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 161 (Friday, September 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6367-S6368]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     NOMINATION OF BRETT KAVANAUGH

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, like millions of people across the 
country, I watched the hearing yesterday with a mix of so many strong 
emotions.
  First, I watched Dr. Ford with tears in my eyes. She was so brave, so 
compelling, so real. The memories that she recounted--the memories that 
she will never forget--were heartbreaking: the living room, the stairs, 
the bedroom, the music turned up loud, the bed, Brett Kavanaugh drunk 
and on top of her, the feeling she had when he covered her mouth to 
stop her from screaming, the raucous laughter between Brett Kavanaugh 
and Mark Judge.
  She remembered the way she felt it then and told it now: two boys 
laughing and having a good time while a scared 15-year-old girl lay 
pinned down on a bed, worried that she may die; the bathroom, listening 
for Brett and Mark to leave, hearing them bounce off the walls as they 
went back downstairs; leaving the house; the sense of relief that she 
escaped; and something anyone who has been a 15-year-old girl can 
understand, not wanting to tell her parents that she had been at a 
house with no adults, older boys, and beer. It was gutting.
  Dr. Ford spoke for herself, but she was channeling the voice of 
millions of women and survivors across the country who are too often 
ignored, interrupted, bullied, or swept aside.
  She was an inspiration, and I hope every one of my colleagues watched 
her speak and answer questions. She made it clear she was not there 
because she wanted to be but because she felt she had to be. She shared 
her story not because she wanted to create a spectacle or embarrass 
anyone but because she felt it was her civic duty to share what she 
knew about Judge Kavanaugh with the people making the decision about 
whether or not he should be on our Nation's highest Court.
  The Republicans on that committee were too afraid to ask her anything 
themselves, but she did an amazing job keeping her composure under 
cross-examination by the prosecutor Republicans hired to question Dr. 
Ford on their behalf, and Dr. Ford made it clear over and over, 
politely but firmly, that she welcomed an investigation. She opened up 
herself to questions and scrutiny. She took a polygraph.
  She remembered some details that further investigation could help 
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on, like seeing Mark Judge at the supermarket a few weeks later, and 
she seemed not to be able to understand why nobody was digging into 
these details that could help uncover even more.
  She said she came to be helpful. She wants to be more helpful. She 
did her job as a U.S. citizen, and she was simply asking for Senators 
to do theirs.
  Then, I watched Judge Kavanaugh, and, frankly, I was appalled and 
dismayed by the rage on his face; the sense of entitlement he 
displayed; refusing to answer questions, sneering at Senators while he 
demanded they answer his questions; the outrage that he was even being 
questioned about an issue like this after all he has done for his 
country; not an ounce of contrition; not a modicum of shame; the 
attempts over and over to turn this away from the substance, the 
allegations from women against him, and the facts that could shine a 
light on them, and toward attacks on the process and a political party; 
the continued falsehoods and evasions and things he said that just are 
not credible, from his claims that he never got blackout drunk and had 
memory lapses during a night of drinking, despite everything we have 
heard from people who know him and everything we have heard from him 
and about him in the past about his younger days, to his claim that he 
and Dr. Ford didn't ``travel in the same social circles,'' when we know 
that is just not true--he has said before that he was good friends with 
Holton-Arms girls, and we know Dr. Ford dated a good friend of Judge 
Kavanaugh, who introduced the two of them--to his absolutely false 
claims that the committee had already received all the evidence it 
needs, which as a judge, he knows is simply not the case, and on and 
on.

  But the most striking thing to me was this--and this is something I 
hope every Senator pays close attention to because I know it is what 
people across the country saw vividly and repeatedly--and that is the 
fact that Judge Kavanaugh so clearly does not want an investigation. He 
does not want the facts to come out. He doesn't want other witnesses to 
be brought in who, if he is telling the truth, could corroborate his 
story and help clear his name.
  He certainly doesn't want anyone to hear from the other two women who 
have come forward with their experiences regarding him and sexual 
assault and who are willing to come and testify under oath.
  He wants to rush through this as quickly as he can with as little 
information as possible coming out. Is that how someone acts if they 
truly have nothing to hide? Is this how someone behaves if they truly 
want to clear their good name? Is this what someone truly innocent of 
everything he is being accused of would do?
  I want to close by setting aside what I thought of the hearing 
yesterday for just a minute. I believe Dr. Ford. I thought she was 
telling the truth. But I want to set that aside to make one more point 
because maybe some of my colleagues watched that hearing yesterday and 
didn't see it the same way I did. Maybe they saw that hearing and 
thought Dr. Ford was credible, and they also thought Judge Kavanaugh 
was credible. Maybe they thought: This is a he said, she said, and I 
just don't know whom or what to believe.
  Here is my message to those colleagues of mine. Yesterday's hearing 
does not have to be the final word. There is absolutely no rush--none, 
zero. We have an opportunity to take a breath and slow down and let 
this process work the way it is supposed to.
  The 11 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee may have scrambled to 
rush this through their phase, but we do not have to follow suit here 
in the Senate. We can have the FBI investigation. We can continue our 
own investigations. We can bring in additional, relevant witnesses in 
the most appropriate ways or hold additional hearings.
  I know we all want this to be over. Trust me, I wish we didn't have 
to go through this, but we simply cannot allow a Supreme Court Justice 
to be jammed through like this right now. It would be a disgrace. It 
would damage the integrity of the Supreme Court, and it would shred 
whatever integrity we have left here in the Senate.
  So I say to those colleagues: Even if you hate how this process has 
gone so far, even if you wish this had been done differently and that 
the information had come out about these allegations sooner, even if 
you think this was bungled completely, even if you want to point 
fingers and blame Democrats for that--fine, but we are right here, 
right now. We are facing one of our most important jobs as Senators, 
laid out in article II, section 2 of our Constitution, to provide 
advice and consent on Supreme Court nominations.
  We can litigate how this went later. I am sure there are ways it 
could have gone better. We can figure that out. We should figure that 
out so we can do better next time, but we should not--we cannot--let 
anger and pique over process and politics cloud what is clearly the 
right thing to do here.
  I hear there are conversations going on in the Judiciary Committee 
right now about slowing down and starting investigations. I am hopeful 
that those end up leading us to being able to do our jobs. No one 
should want those allegations hanging out there or should want the 
investigations to happen and information to come out while he is on the 
Court.
  Let's slow down. Let's learn more. Let's not put a man on the Supreme 
Court with these allegations swirling around him while we still have 
the opportunity to clear this up and get it right.
  Finally, I want to say one more thing right now to women and 
survivors who are angry, who are dispirited, who have reached out to me 
and told me they are shocked; they are crying; they are in disbelief. 
To them, I say we all have a right to these tears, but we all have a 
duty not to give up. I am not giving up. I am not going to give up this 
fight of making sure that women who bravely come forward are not 
ignored, swept under the rug, or silenced by powerful men. I know that 
I stand with millions and millions of women and men across the country 
who are watching the U.S. Senate very closely right now and that they 
are not going to give up either.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Ernst). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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