Hearing sets up dramatic showdown between Kavanaugh and accuser

Brett Kavanaugh. Photo / AP

US Republicans have called Brett Kavanaugh and the woman accusing him of sexual assault decades ago to testify publicly next week, grudgingly setting up a dramatic showdown they hope will prevent the allegation from sinking his nomination to the Supreme Court.

Senate leaders announced the move under pressure from fellow Republicans who wanted a fuller, open examination of the allegations from Christine Blasey Ford, a clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California. After initially suggesting a private conference call on the matter would suffice, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, said his panel would hold a hearing on Tuesday "to provide ample transparency".

The move forced Republicans to put off a planned committee vote for Friday on Kavanaugh's nomination. The delay makes it increasingly difficult for Kavanaugh to win approval by October 1, when the new session of the Supreme Court begins. It also sets up a public, televised airing of sexual misconduct allegations that could derail Kavanaugh's nomination altogether.

Just hours earlier, top Republicans had shown no interest in a theatrical spectacle that would thrust Kavanaugh and Ford before television cameras with each offering public - and no doubt conflicting and emotional - versions of what did or didn't happen at a high school party in the early 1980s.

Instead, Grassley had said he'd seek telephone interviews with Kavanaugh and Ford. Democrats rejected that plan, saying the seriousness of the charges merited a full FBI investigation.

Republicans had also displayed no willingness to delay a Judiciary panel vote that Grassley had planned for Friday to advance the nomination. But President Donald Trump acknowledged earlier in the day that that schedule might slow, telling reporters at the White House: "If it takes a little delay, it will take a little delay."

If the Judiciary Committee's timetable slips further, it would become increasingly difficult for Republicans to schedule a vote before the November 6 elections, in which congressional control will be at stake.

With fragile GOP majorities of just 11-10 on the Judiciary Committee and 51-49 in the full Senate, Republican leaders had little room for defectors without risking a humiliating defeat of Trump's nominee to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Has committee learnt lessons of Hill hearing?

Anita Hill. Photo / AP

The sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh recall Anita Hill's accusations against Clarence Thomas in 1991.

The decision to have Thomas and Hill testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee had far-reaching implications for US politics and society's efforts to grapple with sexual harassment in the workplace.

Republicans were perceived as too harsh in their questioning of Hill. Democrats faced criticism for being timid in her defence.

Former Democratic Vice-President Joe Biden, who was the committee chairman in 1991, said last year that he owed Hill an apology and told reporters yesterday that any woman's public claims of assault should be presumed to be true.

An estimated 20 million people watched in 1991 as Hill, then a University of Oklahoma law professor, accused Thomas of making unwanted advances and lewd remarks when she worked for him at the Education Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the 1980s.

Republicans aggressively questioned Hill, who like Thomas is black, suggesting that she had made up the unwelcome advances.

Thomas won confirmation by a vote of 52 to 48, with 11 Democrats supporting him in a Senate they controlled. The committee was made up of 14 white men. By comparison, the current committee has 11 Republicans, all men, and 10 Democrats, four of whom are women.

Spurred on by the #MeToo movement, sexual misconduct receives much more attention than it did then, and allegations of wrongdoing have toppled powerful men in politics, media, the arts and other fields.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Hill said, "I have seen firsthand what happens when such a process is weaponised against an accuser, and no one should have to endure that again."

- AP