So far, all we know about Christine Blasey Ford is that she claims Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh forced himself on her when they were in high school.
We know some of the details of the alleged assault, which were published in the Washington Post last weekend — for example, that Kavanaugh was supposedly “stumbling drunk” — but we also know that Ford is hazy on much of what went down. She can’t recall the year the incident happened, how she got to the house party, how many boys were involved, or how she got home.
We also know that she sent a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein in late July that has been published in heavily redacted form. (The redactions are so all-encompassing that even the name of the sender is blacked out.) A request by to see the unredacted letter by Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has yet to be complied with.
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That’s not a whole lot to go on, especially since Ford has not yet appeared in public and Brett Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations. But it’s apparently enough for Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who said yesterday at a press conference on Capitol Hill:
I believe Dr. Blasey Ford because she’s telling the truth. You know it by her story. You know it by the fact that she told her therapist five years ago. She told her husband. This is a trauma she’s been dealing with her whole life. She doesn’t want to be in a bedroom that doesn’t have two doors. People knew that about her a long time ago.
These are the hallmarks of truth, these are the hallmarks of someone who wants to be believed. I believe her because she’s telling the truth. She’s asking the FBI to investigate her claims. She’s asking for that kind of review, that investigative work, that oversight, that accountability. Someone who is lying doesn’t ask the FBI to investigate their claims.
This largely vapid statement is typical of much we are hearing from the Left and therefore deserves to be parsed:
- “I believe Dr. Blasey Ford because she’s telling the truth.” Apart from this being circular reasoning, how does Gillibrand know for a fact that Ford is telling the truth? Once again, all anyone, including Gillibrand, has so far as points of reference are the Washington Post article and the redacted letter. Ford has not yet appeared publicly or made a live statement.
- “You know [she’s telling the truth] by the fact that she told her therapist five years ago.” It’s hard to see how this proves anything since Ford may be misremembering a traumatic incident, which in any case occurred nearly four decades ago. For all we know, she may be delusional and imagines the assault. Many of the lingering questions clear-thinking people have — including Ford’s credibility — will be resolved once she has spoken in public.
- “Someone who is lying doesn’t ask the FBI to investigate their claims.” Unless the someone who is lying has a hidden agenda. As I noted yesterday, Ford waited 38 years to go public with her claim that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Why did she not pursue redress for this crime against her earlier? For example, why didn’t the name Brett Kavanaugh set off emotional alarms in 2003, when he was nominated to U.S. Court of Appeals? One real possibility is that Ford is helping the Democrats in their effort to derail the nomination of Kavanaugh. That would also explain For’s delay tactics.
