-Today Dr. Christine Blasey Ford
testified to the Senate about the allegations
of sexual assault against
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
Coming into this hearing today, President Trump's aides
desperately tried to restrain him
and prevent him from attacking Dr. Ford,
but Trump very quickly dispensed with that advice
and went on the offensive.
In fact, Trump was apparently so frustrated
by the growing crisis around his nominee
that he decided to take matters into his own hands.
-President Trump is not only
still standing by Judge Brett Kavanaugh,
but tonight, he's taking the reins
of defending the embattled Supreme Court nominee.
He's grown increasingly dissatisfied
with how Kavanaugh has defended himself,
CNN has learned.
-The president believes
on the eve of this hearing in the Senate
that he and he, alone, can put the best spin on this,
that he can defend his nominee.
-Oh, good.
Trump is taking charge now.
That's like if your computer froze
and your grandpa was like, "Let me see that thing.
You probably just need more water in the keyboard."
That's why Trump held his insane press conference yesterday.
He actually thought he was helping
when, for example, he went off on an insane
and totally unrelated tangent
about how the Chinese think he's smart.
-If you look at Mr. Pillsbury,
the leading authority on China, he was on a good show --
I won't mention the name of the show -- recently.
And he was saying that China has total respect for Donald Trump
And for Donald Trump's very, very large a-brain.
[ Laughter ]
I'm a-sorry?
Why is he doing a bad Italian accent?
Is he quoting a China expert, or Super Mario?
[ As Mario ] It's me, a-Mario.
Donald Trump has a large brain.
Also, I think he's quoting someone he saw on cable news
named Mr. Pillsbury,
but I also feel like there's a decent chance
he just saw a commercial with the Pillsbury Doughboy
and then he hallucinated that it was talking to him.
-You have a very, very large brain.
Hoo-hoo-hoo!
-[ As Trump] Thank you, Mr. Pillsbury,
for your kind words and your delicious biscuits.
[ Normal voice ] In fact, Trump's frantic paranoid attempt
to defend his embattled Supreme Court nominee
from sexual-assault allegations led him to a truly crazy place.
Somehow, he found a way
to drag George Washington into his mess.
-Look, if we brought George Washington here,
and we said, "We have George Washington,"
the Democrats would vote against him.
Just so you understand.
-I mean, does he still own slaves?
Then, yeah.
Democrats would vote against him,
And Republicans would probably say,
"Hey, man, everybody owned a few slaves in college.
You want to ruin his life over it?"
Trump actually kept going because then he seemed to imply
that George Washington had something nefarious
in his background that we don't know about.
-And he may have had a bad past. Who knows, you know?
He may have had some... I think, accusations made.
Didn't he have a couple things in his past?
-Wait.
Did Trump just imply
that George Washington was as shady as he is?
"I hear he chopped down a cherry tree
and then he used that tree to pay off a porn star."
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
Only Trump.
Only Trump would try to defend himself
by slandering another president.
"So what if I cheated on my wife?
Abraham Lincoln left his wife right in the middle of play."
[ Laughter ]
"What? what happened? Oh, okay.
I didn't read the whole book."
So Trump and Republicans had already made clear
that their intent was to protect Kavanaugh
and dismiss Dr. Ford.
And in the hearing today,
Republicans picked up right where Trump left off.
Before Dr. Ford even uttered a single word,
Iowa senator Chuck Grassley
delivered an exhausting monologue
defending Kavanaugh and slamming Democrats.
And then after ranting for almost 15 minutes,
Senator Grassley finally turned the mic over
to the senior Democrat on the committee,
Dianne Feinstein.
Only to interrupt her one minute later.
-Before you get to your testimony,
and the chairman chose not to do this,
I think it's important
to make sure you're properly introduced.
-By the way, I was going to introduce her,
but if you want to introduce her,
I'll be glad to have you do that.
But I want you to know I didn't forget to do it,
because I would do that just as she was about to speak.
-You said I didn't do it, but I'm going to do it.
And then you did it
and now I can't do it because it's done.
Dude, shut up. Your time is up.
You don't get to pop up out of your coffin
whenever you want, like The Crypt-Keeper.
I was going to do it, then you did it!
[ Applause ]
And yet the Republicans'
constant sniping and their obvious attempts
to obstruct the process and brush Ford aside
did not deter her in any way.
Her testimony today was a towering act of courage
given the trauma she's survived.
Her grace and composure under unimaginable pressure
which she owed no one was stunning.
In fact, at one point, Dr. Ford, a research psychologist,
literally explained to the panel how memory works.
-How are you so sure that it was he?
-The same way that I'm sure
that I'm talking to you right now.
Just basic memory functions.
And also just the level of norepinephrine
and epinephrine in the brain
that sort of, as you know, encodes that neurotransmitter,
encodes memories into the hippocampus.
-She's in the middle of testifying
in the intense glare of the national spotlight
about an alleged sexual assault
committed by a Supreme Court nominee
and she just taught everyone how the brain works.
She gave a detailed anatomy of the hippocampus
and the memory centers in the brain
to a roomful of guys who look like they eat brains.
Seriously, just think about --
Think about how impressive that is.
She's a research psychologist
explaining how the mind works
in the middle of a horrific experience
that no one should ever have to endure.
Meanwhile, the most coherent thing
Trump has ever said about the mind is that he has a...
-Very, very large a-brain.
[ Laughter ]
-in fact, throughout the hearing --
Throughout the hearing,
Republicans really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel
to try to discredit Dr. Ford.
At one point, the prosecutor Republicans picked
went down a confusing line of questioning
about Dr. Ford's fear of flying,
Republicans have also spent weeks falsely implying
that Dr. Ford was missing key facts in her story.
But throughout this hearing, it became clear that they were
the ones who had basic facts wrong,
like when they asked her about her travels to Australia.
-In fact, you fly
fairly frequently for your hobbies,
and you've had to fly for your work.
Is that true? -Correct. Unfortunately.
-You were a consulting biostatistician
in Sydney, Australia.
Is that right? -I've never been to Australia.
But the company I worked for is based in Australia.
-"You said you flew to Australia to eat dinner?"
"Uh, no, I said I went to an Outback Steakhouse."
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
And if you thought the Republican attacks --
If you thought the Republican attacks
couldn't get any dumber and more desperate,
you were wrong because you forgot
that there's a second Donald Trump.
And he chimed in on Twitter
after the airplane question to say this --
"I'm no psychology professor, but it does seem weird to me
that someone could have a selective fear of flying."
Oh!
Oh, you're not a psychology professor?
Is that why you look like a princess kissed
a double-parked BMW,
and it came to life?
Well, Dr. Ford literally is a psychology professor,
you melted-down Beavis.
Dr. Ford's testimony was
so searing and so powerful and so impressive
that Republicans were clearly caught off guard.
In fact, even Fox News, the network that spends all day
parroting Republican talking points,
said Dr. Ford's testimony was bad for the GOP.
-The court of public opinion,
if our colleague is an adequate sample of it,
is that she is extremely credible.
The president cannot be happy with this.
-This was extremely emotional,
extremely raw, and extremely credible.
This is a disaster for the Republicans.
-Wow. You know it's a bad when Fox News calls it a disaster.
Fox News will say anything to make Republicans feel better.
If the Hindenburg had been built by Republicans,
the Fox News headline would have been this.
When it was Kavanaugh's turn, he struck a much different tone
from his Fox News interview earlier this week.
He was angry, defiant,
and stole a page out of Trump's playbook
by claiming, with zero evidence,
that the allegations were part of a left-wing conspiracy
to destroy him.
-Since my nomination in July,
there has been a frenzy on the left
to come up with something, anything,
to block my confirmation.
And millions of dollars in money
from outside left-wing opposition groups.
This whole two-week effort
has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit
fueled with apparent pent-up anger
about President Trump
and the 2016 election,
fear that has been unfairly stoked
about my judicial record,
revenge on behalf of the Clintons.
-Holy [bleep], I'm surprised
he didn't start attacking George Washington.
"If he's so honest, then why does he wear a wig?"
[ Laughter ]
You think this was a revenge plot by the Clintons?
That's insane.
Republicans always act like they're in a slasher film
and the killer around every corner
is Hillary Clinton.
Republicans came into this hearing
clearly trying to dismiss and discredit Dr. Ford
and instead, they encountered someone
who's immeasurable courage
shone through their attempts to obstruct.
What we've seen this week is a group of powerful men
trying to protect each other
from the consequences of their actions.
And a woman who not only
told her story with unimaginable bravery,
but also showed everyone that she has a very large...
-A-brain.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]