Report: Christine Blasey Ford's Own Father Supported Kavanaugh Nomination
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had an unlikely ally during his contentious confirmation hearings, according to a Thursday report from The Federalist.
Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino, who co-authored the recent best-seller “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court,” reported that the father of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Kavanaugh of trying to rape her, offered his support to the Kavanaugh family in the days following the justice’s confirmation.
Ford’s father, Ralph Blasey, reportedly spoke with Kavanaugh’s father at a Maryland golf club and expressed his satisfaction at seeing Kavanaugh confirmed to the high court.
“I’m glad Brett was confirmed,” Blasey told Ed Kavanaugh, according to Hemingway and Severino.
Blasey also allegedly shook the elder Kavanaugh’s hand and told him that the confirmation process had been difficult for both of their families.
According to The Federalist report, that interaction “caused a stir at the close-knit private golf club” where both Blasey and Kavanaugh are members.
The report is not the first time Ford’s family has appeared in the news.
As Hemingway and Severino recount, a public letter supporting Ford began “As members of Christine Blasey Ford’s family,” yet was not signed by “a single blood relative.”
Ralph Blasey offered only terse remarks to The Washington Post when reached for comment in September 2018: “I think all of the Blasey family would support her. I think her record stands for itself. Her schooling, her jobs and so on.”
The report of Ed Kavanaugh and Blasey’s meeting only underscores the personal nature of the confirmation process, Hemingway and Severino wrote.
“The national drama played out on a decidedly local scale,” they claimed.
Some of Ford’s family members apologized to friends and family of the justice after his confirmation, albeit quietly, according to The Federalist report.
As The Post reported at the time of the hearings, the two families had been “intertwined” for years.
“Ford’s parents raised their children in the same affluent Maryland suburbs as the Kavanaugh family … and like the Kavanaughs, Paula and Ralph Blasey are registered Republicans.”
Blasey has never commented on the credibility of his daughter’s accusations, Hemingway and Severino wrote. But he and his family may have questioned Ford’s decision to bring her allegations against the Supreme Court nominee.
“It appears the Blasey family had significant doubts about what Ford was trying to accomplish by coming forward and making unsubstantiated allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.”
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