Republican Senators Chose Not to Question Blasey Ford Today, Still Managed to Be Truly Terrible

When questioning Dr. Christine Blasey Ford today, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee gave up their time to a female attorney known for prosecuting sex crimes. It’s arguable whether that was a smart move or not. Their hired female assistant attorney seemed to harshly interrogate Ford, while the Democrats repeatedly thanked and celebrated her for coming forward.

On the other hand, at least Republicans didn’t have to suffer the optics of 11 elderly white dudes bullying a woman about her sexual assault.

Still, even though they didn’t question Ford directly, those Republican senators still managed to be the absolute worst today.

We’ve already covered Chuck Grassley, the committee chairman, and how he was antagonistic towards Dr. Ford and the Democratic senators, interrupting every single woman who spoke today.

But he wasn’t the only Republican to say awful things, despite the rest of them, again, not being scheduled to speak today.

Let’s start with Orrin Hatch, who, during a news conference during a break in Ford’s testimony, was asked by a reporter if he thought Ford was credible. His response: She’s “attractive.” Also, (gag) “pleasing.”

Gross.

And then there’s Lindsey Graham, who was visibly angered by Ford’s testimony. (He also screamed his way through his questioning of Kavanaugh.) He said the hearing was a “political game” on the behalf of the Democrats. He also said that Democrats never face consequences for sexual assault (because he’s apparently forgotten about his former colleague Al Franken) and that if this is the “new normal,” then Democrats had better “watch out” for their nominees (because I guess he doesn’t remember Merrick Garland).

Still none of those senators were as terrible as Kavanaugh himself. He spent his time alternating between smugly smirking and (mostly) yelling at Democratic senators. Seriously, if you didn’t watch, the amount of yelling cannot be overstated. It was Alex Jones levels of screaming, mostly about beer.

For someone so terrible, he has inspired some great memes.

Reminder: Call your senator. Today.

(image: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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