Mazie Hirono rips GOP, prosecutor over questioning of Ford credibility

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Rachel Mitchell, chief of the Special Victims Division of the Maricopa County attorney’s office in Arizona, listens to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testify at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. 

Hirono began her own questioning of Ford, a research psychologist, by underscoring the fact that Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, like other Republican members of the committee, did not question Ford themselves, but relied on Mitchell to ask all questions of her.

“Mr. Chairman. is it your intent to cede all Republicans’ time to your prosecutor rather than they themselves ceding their time to her?'” Hirono asked.

“Yes,” Grassley replied.

Hirono then said, “We all know that the prosecutor, even though this clearly is not a criminal proceeding, is asking Dr. Ford all kinds of questions about what happened before and after, but basically not during the attack,” Hirono said.

“The prosecutor should know that sexual assault survivors often do not remember … information such as what happened before or after the traumatic event. and yet she will persist in asking these questions all to undermine the memory and basically the credibility of Dr. Ford,” she added. “We all know Dr. Ford’s memory of the assault is very clear.”

The Hawaii Democrat then stressed that the proceedings were not supposed to feel like a prosecution.

“Dr. Ford, the Republicans’ prosecutor has asked you all kinds of questions about who you called and when, asking details that would be asked in a cross examination of a witness in a criminal trial,” Hirono said. “But this is not a criminal proceeding. This is a confirmation proceeding.”