*By Carlo Versano*
Prof. Christine Blasey Ford ー emotional and at times defiant ー read an opening statement during Thursday's hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in which she said, in no uncertain terms, that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s at a house party when they were both teenagers in Maryland.
For the first time since the allegations were made public earlier this month, the country both saw and heard Dr. Ford, who opened her testimony by stating, "I am terrified."
She continued, "I am here, because I believe it is my civic duty."
Ford's opening statement turned more resolute when she described death threats she has received since coming forward in an article in The Washington Post.
"Apart from the assault itself, these past couple of weeks have been the hardest of my life. I have had to relive this trauma in front of the world," she said.
She also pushed back forcefully on critics who said she couldn't possibly remember an attack from so long ago ー and referenced pundits and operatives who have proposed the idea that she was acting as part of a Democratic hit job on Kavanaugh's nomination.
"I am an independent person, and I am no one's pawn," Ford said.
House Republicans made post-midnight changes to their sweeping debt ceiling package to win over holdouts, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed ahead Wednesday with plans to launch debate and round up support from his slim majority for a vote this week.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol opened his state visit to Washington on Tuesday by touring a NASA facility with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Biden administration looks to deepen ties with a close ally that it sees as only growing in importance in an increasingly complicated Indo-Pacific.
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President Joe Biden has formally announced he’s seeking reelection.
Three Tennessee lawmakers who became Democratic heroes for facing expulsion after participating in gun control protests visited the White House on Monday, describing themselves as “representatives of a movement" that is demanding greater restrictions on firearms to save lives.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is hurtling toward one of the most consequential weeks of the new House Republican majority as he labors to pass a partisan package that would raise the nation's debt limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep cuts that some in his own party oppose.
A former advice columnist’s nearly 30-year-old rape claim against Donald Trump has gone to trial.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally announced that he is running for reelection in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish this job” he began when he was sworn into office and to set aside their concerns about extending the run of America’s oldest president for another four years.
The sheriff's office in Carroll County, northeast of Louisville, has hired former Louisville police officer Myles Cosgrove, who fatally shot Taylor in a March 2020 drug raid that used a faulty warrant to break through her door.
The United States has begun facilitating the departure of private U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan, according to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
