White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually attacking her in 1982 should be allowed to publicly air her claims before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“This woman should not be insulted and she should not be ignored. I think the Senate is headed toward a reasonable approach, allowing this woman to be heard in sworn testimony, allowing Judge Kavanaugh to be heard in sworn testimony,” Conway said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” Monday. “I spoke with the president, I spoke with Senator [Lindsey] Graham and others. This woman will be heard.”
Conway’s comments came after Christine Blasey Ford alleged in a Washington Post story published Sunday that a drunken Kavanaugh pinned her down, groped her and tried to stop her from screaming during a high school party in Bethesda, Md.
Ford’s lawyer, Debra Katz, appeared on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday to say her client would be willing to testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has planned a Thursday vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Conway said the claims by Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist at Palo Alto University, should be “weighed against” other evidence.
“This has to be weighed against what we already know, which is that Judge Kavanaugh is a man of good character and integrity,” Conway said, noting that he has already been vetted by the FBI, undergone days of questioning before the panel and has been praised by “women in every aspect of his life.”
Since Ford has gone public with her allegations, Democrats and some Republicans have called on the committee to postpone a vote on Kavanaugh until her claims can be sorted out.
But Conway rejected delaying the process, saying Democrats had already shown they were opposed to Kavanaugh.
“Let’s not fool ourselves – long before this happened there were Democrats saying they would not vote for Judge Kavanaugh or anyone President Trump nominated for the Supreme Court,” she said.