MIND MADE UP

Lindsey Graham: Christine Blasey Ford’s Testimony Won’t Change My Support for Brett Kavanaugh

“I want to listen to her, but I’m being honest with you and everybody else. What do you expect me to do?”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) indicated on Sunday that Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony this coming week will not change his support for Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. “This accusation is 36 years old. I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know where it happened. And all of the people who have been named say it didn’t happen,” Graham said on Fox News Sunday, referring to statements from alleged attendees at the party, where Ford says she was assaulted by Kavanaugh, who disputed her allegations. “I want to listen to her, but I’m being honest with you and everybody else. What do you expect me to do? You can’t bring it in a criminal court. You would never sue civilly. You couldn’t even get a warrant. What am I supposed to do?” Graham continued. “Go ahead and ruin this guy’s life based on an accusation—I don’t know when it happened, I don’t know where it happened, and everybody named in regard to being there said it didn’t happen. I’m just being honest. Unless there’s something more, no I’m not going to ruin Judge Kavanaugh’s life over this.” Graham said he would listen to Ford and treat her respectfully, but added he would not “play a game here and tell you this will wipe out his entire life—because if nothing changes, it won’t with me.” Ford is set to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Graham is a member, on Thursday, a source familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast. Republicans, including the president, have grown more defiant in their defense of Kavanaugh in recent days over what they view as a politically motivated strategy on the part of Democrats to delay and derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation.