Brett Kavanaugh and Dr Christine Blasey Ford testify in a dramatic day on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Photos / AP
Brett Kavanaugh and Dr Christine Blasey Ford testify in a dramatic day on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Photos / AP
A dramatic day of excruciating public interrogations has left Americans deeply divided.
America is shell shocked.
Today, university professor Christine Blasey Ford and the Supreme Court nominee she has accused of sexually assaulting her, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, each faced an excruciating public interrogation.
Dr Ford gave the Senate Judicial Committee a raw account of the alleged attack, saying Kavanaugh pinned her down on a bed, attempted to remove her clothes and covered her mouth when she tried to scream.
She claims it happened at a party in 1982, when they were both high school students.
Immediately after her testimony, Kavanaugh also appeared before the committee, issuing a furious denial and accusing the opposition party, the Democrats, of trying to destroy his life.
It was historic, visceral and utterly riveting.
Here is how the country reacted.
THE ACCUSER
Dr Christine Blasey Ford testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo / AP
Dr Ford is one of three women who have publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, but she faced the committee alone.
"I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me," Dr Ford said.
She recounted the alleged sexual assault in disturbing detail.
"He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me. I yelled, hoping someone downstairs might hear me, and tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy," she said.
"Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was so drunk, and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothes. I believed he was going to rape me.
"I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me."
Dr Ford said the weeks since her accusation became public have been the hardest of her life.
"I have had to relive my trauma in front of the entire world," she said.
"I have been accused of acting out of partisan political motives. Those who say that do not know me. I am a fiercely independent person and I am no one's pawn."
THE ACCUSED
Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies. Photo / AP
Kavanaugh shed the measured image he had projected in previous public hearings and furiously fought back against the allegation.
"This confirmation process has become a national disgrace," the judge said.
"This has destroyed my family and my good name, a good name built up through decades of very hard work in public service at the highest levels of American government.
"This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fuelled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons.
"This is a circus. This grotesque and co-ordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country."
Kavanaugh was combative in his responses to Democrats' questions, and eventually blew up at Senator Dianne Feinstein.
"My family's been destroyed by this, Senator! Destroyed!" he said.
"What you're saying, if I understand it, is that the allegations by Dr Ford, Ms Ramirez and Ms Swetnick are wrong?" she asked him.
"Emphatically what I'm saying. Emphatically! The Swetnick thing is a joke. This is a farce," he replied.
THE INTERROGATORS
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham unleashed an extraordinary spray in defence of Kavanaugh halfway through the hearing.
Senator Lindsey Graham. Photo / AP
"What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020! You've said that, not me!" Graham roared at the Democrats sitting next to him.
The senator noted he had voted for progressive Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor despite disagreeing with their politics.
"I would never do to them what you've done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy.
"Boy, y'all want power. God I hope you never get it."
Donald Trump was in equal parts fulsome in his praise for Kavanaugh's performance and scathing in his criticism of the Democrats.
"Judge Kavanaugh showed American exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," Trump said.
Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!
At a press conference yesterday, the President called the allegations "a big fat con job" and strongly implied the three women, including Dr Ford, were lying.
"People want fame, they want money, they want whatever," he said.
THE MEDIA
The most interesting reactions to the hearing came from Trump's favourite TV network, Fox News.
Respected host Chris Wallace called Dr Ford's testimony "extremely emotional, extremely raw and extremely credible" and said the hearing had been "a disaster for Republicans".
US President Donald Trump is standing by his man. Photo / AP
He also said the last couple of weeks had inspired his daughters to open up to him.
"Two of my daughters have told me stories that I had never heard before about things that happened to them in high school. And hadn't told their parents, I don't know if they had told their friends, never reported it to police," Wallace said.
"The point is there are teenage girls who don't tell stories to a lot of people, and then it comes up. I don't think we can disregard that."
Former judge Andrew Napolitano, a personal friend of the President, said Dr Ford had shown "great credibility".
"At this point, she is 100 per cent. No one has laid a glove on her and she's absolutely believable in my opinion," he said.
But former prosecutor Sidney Powell struck a very different tone.
"It will be interesting to see how many women find her credible. Frankly, I do not. The emotion that I'm seeing does not appear to me to be real at all, any more than it could be spawned from her being in this position to testify on national television," Ms Powell said.
"One of the things that really concerns me is how broad a definition we are using of the term sexual assault. Most prosecutors and laws define that as being raped. She was far from being raped. She hasn't even alleged that any body part was exposed.
"I see nothing that a prosecutor would have found to prosecute.
"If we start policing 17-year-old boys and 15-year-old girls at parties who try to make out with each other, we're going to have a big problem with overcriminalisation."
Over on ABC, chief legal analyst Dan Abrams said the hearing had been "an unmitigated disaster for Kavanaugh" and the judge was now far less likely to be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
For that to happen, a majority of the Senate will need to vote in his favour. CNN's John King examined the numbers.
King identified four key senators who will decide Kavanaugh's fate — Jeff Flake, Ben Sasse, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins — describing them as "pre-Trump" Republicans. In other words, they are conservative, but disapprove of Trump's style of politics.
"Brett Kavanaugh went full Trump today," he said. "So does Kavanaugh's embrace of Trump help him with the four key senators or hurt him? That's the question."
NBC star Megyn Kelly said Republican voters would have a lot of sympathy for Kavanaugh's obvious frustration.
"They feel for him. And how can you not? I mean, she gets up there and gives this incredibly moving, emotional testimonial about what happened to her when she was 15, and then he gets up there and you can see the toll this has taken on him," Ms Kelly said.
"The toll of the behaviour of the people who have been attacking him was evident in the emotions he showed just there. And he wasn't going after her, he was going after the Democrats."
Kelly, a former lawyer, said Democrats should be relieved the hearing was not a trial, because Dr Ford would probably lose in court.
"He would be afforded the presumption of innocence and she would have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. She has no corroborating witnesses.
"This would be a nightmare criminal trial — but that's not what this is."
“The Democrats should be happy that this is not a trial because if it were, she would likely lose…This would be a nightmare criminal trial, but that’s not what this is.” -@megynkelly#KavanaughHearingspic.twitter.com/9mqQfYPcty
