Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) blasted professor Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as “absurd” because they were merely drunken teenagers at the time. Besides, Cramer added, it was “supposedly an attempt that never went anywhere.”
The California psychology professor, who goes by Christine Blasey professionally, has said that Kavanaugh pushed her into a room, locked the door, pinned her down on a bed and held his hand over her mouth while he pawed at her clothing and pushed against her. She said she escaped when a high school friend of Kavanaugh’s jumped on top of them.
Kavanaugh has “categorically” denied her accusation. His nomination is before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Cramer, who’s battling to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in November, revealed his take on the sexual assault allegation in an interview Friday on “The Jarrod Thomas Show” on Grand Fork’s KNOX-AM.
Cramer compared Blasey’s accusation to law professor Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony about Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas’ alleged sexual harassment. Thomas was later confirmed to the court.
“This case is even more absurd because these people were teenagers when this supposed alleged incident took place; teenagers,” he emphasized.
“These are teenagers who evidently were drunk, according to her own statement,” he continued. Blasey has said that both boys were “stumbling drunk” while she had had a single beer.
“They were drunk. Nothing evidently happened in it all, even by her own accusation,” Cramer added. “Again, it was supposedly an attempt, or something, that never went anywhere.”
Cramer warned that it’s going to be difficult to get “good people” for judgeships and government jobs if “this is going to be the standard — if you have to have a perfect record in junior high and high school.”
Check out the interview in the audio file above. Cramer’s comments about the “supposed attempt” begin at about the 5:20 mark.
It remained unclear late Friday if Blasey would testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. The committee on Friday afternoon had set a 10 p.m. EDT deadline for her to agree to its conditions for a Wednesday hearing, but her attorney asked for another day to decide on the request, calling the “arbitrary” deadline an attempt to “bully” her client.
Later Friday, committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) indicated he had allowed a day’s extension for her decision, tweeting: “I want to hear her.”