Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley says he has yet to hear back from Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of committing sexual and physical assault while they were both in high school.
Tuesday morning, Grassley told Hugh Hewitt on his radio show that Ford has not accepted his request to appear before the committee.
“We have reached out to her in the last 36 hours, three or four times, by email, and we have not heard from them,” Grassley said. “So it kind of raises the question, do they want to come to the public hearing or not?”
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, announced Monday that the committee would convene again next week for a public hearing. Both Kavanaugh and Ford have indicated a willingness to testify on the alleged incident, and the hearing scheduled for next Monday would give them each the opportunity to do so.
Grassley also said during the interview with Hewitt that the hearing would only consist of the two witnesses.
Ford alleges that while the two were at a party in high school, Kavanaugh pushed her into a bedroom along with his friend Mark Judge, and attempted to remove her clothes. She also says that Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream.
Kavanaugh and Judge have denied the accusations.
“This is a completely false allegation,” Kavanaugh said Monday in a statement. “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes – to her or to anyone. Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday. I am willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in any way the committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.”
