“I believed he was going to rape me,” she said, adding, “It was hard for me to breathe and I believed that Brett was going to accidentally kill me.”The hearing riveted the nation, as the fate of Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, hung in the balance. As Dr. Blasey testified, Republican senators sat in mute witness, forgoing questioning and giving over their time to an outside lawyer, Rachel Mitchell, whose clipped questioning gave the hearing a prosecutorial tone. But the alternative scenario — Republican male senators handling the questions — may have been worse. During a break in the hearing, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, told reporters: “I don’t think she’s uncredible. I think she’s an attractive, good witness.” Asked for clarity, he said, “In other words, she’s pleasing.”

Source: New York Times September 27, 2018 18:08 UTC