Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R) is accusing California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of refusing to help schedule follow-up phone calls to Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford so the committee has a chance to hear her side of the story.
Despite calling for an investigation into Ford’s allegations, Grassley says Feinstein’s office has so far refused to facilitate contact with Ford, who has publicly accused the SCOTUS nominee of assaulting her at a high school party 35 years ago.
“Anyone who comes forward as Dr. Ford has deserves to be heard, so I will continue working on a way to hear her out in an appropriate, precedented and respectful manner,” Grassley said in a statement Monday.
“The standard procedure for updates to any nominee’s background investigation file is to conduct separate follow-up calls with relevant parties. In this case, that would entail phone calls with at least Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford," he added. "Consistent with that practice, I asked Senator Feinstein’s office yesterday to join me in scheduling these follow-ups. Thus far, they have refused. But as a necessary step in evaluating these claims, I’ll continue working to set them up."
Grassley then slammed Feinstein for withholding information about Ford’s story throughout Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, instead waiting more than six weeks to drop the bombshell only days before the Senate’s vote.
“Unfortunately, committee Republicans have only known this person's identity from news reports for less than 24 hours and known about her allegations for less than a week,” Grassley said. “Senator Feinstein, on the other hand, has had this information for many weeks and deprived her colleagues of the information necessary to do our jobs. The Minority withheld even the anonymous allegations for six weeks, only to later decide that they were serious enough to investigate on the eve of the committee vote, after the vetting process had been completed.
The Senate Judiciary chairman added his office is “working diligently to get to the bottom of these claims.”
Feinstein, on the other hand, has demanded the Senate delay their vote to confirm Kavanaugh until a thorough investigation can be conducted into Ford’s claims, calling the SCOTUS nominee a liar and saying – ironically – that his accuser deserves to be heard...while doing nothing to help the Senate hear her, apparently.
BREAKING: @JudiciaryDems are urging Chairman Grassley to postpone Thursday’s vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, allow the FBI to investigate Dr. Ford’s allegations and follow up on Kavanaugh’s false and misleading committee testimony. https://t.co/ffx33zTe0k
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) September 17, 2018
I agree with Senator Flake that we should delay this week's vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. There's a lot of information we don't know and the FBI should have the time it needs to review this new material. Staff calls aren't the appropriate way to handle this.
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) September 17, 2018
If Senate Democrats want to prove this whole debacle is anything more than just a stall tactic to push Kavanaugh's confirmation vote beyond the November midterms, this certainly isn't the way to do it.