Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'I Thought That Brett Was Accidentally Going To Kill Me': Kavanaugh, Accuser To Testify As Tension On Hill Mounts
The New York Times: Before Kavanaugh Hearing, New Accusations And Doubts Emerge
Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh faced a whirlwind of new accusations on Wednesday that threatened to derail his nomination to the Supreme Court as key Republican senators wavered in their support and President Trump, in a rambling and combative news conference, acknowledged that he might be persuaded by the testimony of one of the judge’s female accusers. (Fandos and Shear, 9/26)
The Washington Post: Career Prosecutor Brings Wild-Card Element To Kavanaugh Hearing
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday will take the extraordinary step of putting one of the most politically treacherous and emotionally charged congressional hearings in recent memory in the hands of an unknown career prosecutor from Arizona with little comparable experience. (Helderman, Kim, Dawsey and Farzan, 9/26)
The Wall Street Journal: New Claims Add Fuel To Showdown Over Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Committee aides also were seeking on Wednesday to speak with the judge’s latest accuser, Julie Swetnick, who alleged that Judge Kavanaugh was at a party in the early 1980s when she was gang-raped and that he tried to get women drunk at several gatherings. She wasn’t scheduled to appear at the hearing. Mr. Kavanaugh has forcefully denied all of the allegations against him, saying at one point he felt like he was in the Twilight Zone. “This is crazy town—it’s a smear campaign,” Mr. Kavanaugh told committee aides. (Ballhaus and Viswanatha, 9/26)
Los Angeles Times: Ford: 'I Thought That Brett Was Accidentally Going To Kill Me'
California professor Christine Blasey Ford plans to tell senators Thursday that she is “no one’s pawn” and that an alleged 1982 sexual assault by now-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has “been seared into my memory and ... haunted me episodically as an adult.” In her opening statement for the high-stakes hearing, released Wednesday, Ford said a drunken Kavanaugh, then 17, pinned her to a bed at a party, groping her, trying to remove her clothes and placing his hand over her mouth when she tried to yell for help. (Haberkorn and Wire, 9/26)
NPR: Christine Blasey Ford's Opening Statement About Kavanaugh Allegation
Christine Blasey Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school in the early 1980s. On Thursday the psychology professor is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read her opening statement. (9/26)
The Washington Post: Trio Of GOP Senators In Spotlight On Eve Of Second Kavanaugh Hearing
Three Senate Republicans were already at the epicenter of the firestorm around Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court: Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. But the trio, who have been lobbied heavily by outside groups, vocal constituents and their own colleagues, are now suddenly grappling with a new set of allegations brought by a third woman against Kavanaugh — accusations that are making an already tense confirmation fight even more combustible for the influential group of senators. (Kim, 9/26)
Politico: Kavanaugh's GOP Defenders On The Hot Seat At Hearing
Lindsey Graham complained that Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers are making him out to be “Bill Cosby.” Orrin Hatch blasted “phony” accusations in The New Yorker. And John Cornyn urged the Senate to get on with a confirmation vote before more “reckless” allegations are lodged against the Supreme Court nominee. All three Republicans will be on the dais Thursday when Ford appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing that will determine whether Kavanaugh lands on the high court. They've been Kavanaugh’s most aggressive defenders — and appear most at risk of appearing dismissive of Kavanaugh's initial accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. (Everett and Bresnahan, 9/26)
Los Angeles Times: Here's What Sexual Assault Experts Say You Should Keep In Mind As Christine Blasey Ford Shares Her Story
You’ll probably hear that there are many things we don’t know about sexual assault: who commits it and why, what impact it has on victims, how often it is falsely reported, and how accurately it’s remembered by those who talk about it years later. That is only half true. The people who devote their careers to investigating the subject always have unanswered questions: that’s what drives their research. But the study of sexual violence has matured in recent decades. At least 15 journals routinely publish scholarly findings on trauma and violence of all kinds, and a handful focus specifically on sexual violence. (Healy, 9/27)
The Washington Post: How Alcohol Causes Blackouts And Blocks Memories
The allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh have a common element of binge drinking, and highlight the powerful effects alcohol can have on adolescents and their still-developing brains. Alcohol not only changes behavior — sometimes with disastrous consequences — it can also interfere with memory formation, creating gaps that experts refer to as blackouts. “In the moment, the person can be functioning normally, with no sign there’s going to be memory impairment. But because those memories never get consolidated and stored, it’s like they never occurred, so you can’t recall them later on,” said Kate Carey, a clinical psychologist at Brown University School of Public Health. “Which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.” (Johnson and Achenbach, 9/26)
