The Arizona prosecutor hired by Republican senators to interrogate Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s recollections of being sexually assaulted by their preferred Supreme Court nominee tried to undermine her credibility Thursday by honing in on her fear of flying.
After declining to ask about Dr. Blasey Ford’s specific recollections of being assaulted inside an upstairs bedroom by Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge that summer, prosecutor Rachel Mitchell moved on to a series of questions aimed at the process by which the professor ended up testifying at all.
The premise of the various lines of questioning accords with right-wing conspiracies which hold that Blasey Ford is a plant, or a fraud, or a politically motivated saboteur of Kavanaugh’s nomination for a lifelong term. At one point, Mitchell tried to play that gotcha game by focusing on the professor’s flight history — insinuating that her earlier reservations about coming to Washington were made-up, or that her claims of having been reluctant to fly out earlier must be bunk because she’s here now.
“May I ask, Dr. Ford, how did you get to Washington?” Mitchell said.
“In an airplane,” Blasey Ford answered.
After explaining that she was asking because the press had reported Blasey Ford “would not submit to an interview with the committee because of your fear of flying,” the prosecutor proceeded to interrogate the doctor about her enthusiasm for tropical vacations and surfing, her annual trip to visit family in Delaware, and her prior employment with an Australia-based company.
“In fact you fly fairly frequently for your hobbies and you have had to fly for you work, is that true?” Mitchell said.
Blasey Ford took the strange line of questioning in stride, though Twitter erupted with confusion, mockery, and anger at the kindergarten-argument style of logic apparently being invoked by the representative of Republicans who have made clear they expect to confirm Kavanaugh to the court no matter what happens on Thursday.
Later on, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) succumbed to the temptation to bicker for the fourth or fifth time so far, telling the professor that she was mistaken about the committee’s reluctance to send staff out to California to meet with her earlier in the summer. Grassley has repeatedly perforated the veil Republicans sought to erect by handing their time over to Mitchell, erupting varyingly at Democratic peers on the committee and at his own staff.
The committee has not subpoenaed any of the potential witnesses to Blasey Ford’s alleged assault by Kavanaugh, including Judge, the nominee’s close boyhood friend who’s published multiple books detailing his carousing days as a blackout drunk. Blasey Ford recounted running into Judge weeks after the party at the Safeway where he then worked, and seeing her co-assaulter’s face go white when he recognized her.
Judge’s own phobias about travel are unknown. He is reportedly holed up at a beach house in Delaware as his fellow Republicans seek to attack the credibility of Blasey Ford.