At least two demands by Christine Ford and her attorneys are said to be non-starters in her negotiations with the Judiciary Committee on a hearing next week.
NEW: Senate Judiciary Committee staff continue to negotiate with Christine Blasey Ford’s attorneys, but say two of her requests — to have Kavanaugh testify first and for the committee to subpoena other witnesses like Mark Judge — are “non-starters."
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) September 21, 2018
A senior Senate Republican source tells NPR that asking Kavanaugh to go first is “not doable,"noting Kavanaugh would need to respond to any new accusation that comes up at the hearing.
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) September 21, 2018
The source tells NPR that it is not standard procedure for another witness to dictate who else should testify and “that’s not precedent we are going to follow.”
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) September 21, 2018
I agree that both of these should be non-starters. Absolutely.
But that also means that not having Kavanaugh in the room AND moving the hearing from Monday to Thursday are being entertained. I’m very much against these two demands as well, but they aren’t the end of the world.
But what I really hope is that making these demands non-starters kills the hearing altogether and we can get on with the nomination vote.