September 27, 2018

Lindsey Graham Stages Meltdown After Christine Blasey Ford Finishes Testimony

“I feel ambushed.”

Moments after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford finished nearly four hours of testimony detailing her sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday blasted Democrats for “playing a political game” aimed to block the president from nominating someone to the Supreme Court.

The South Carolina Republican even appeared to speak of Ford in belittling terms, describing her as a “nice lady” who was making an “emotional accusation.” 

“All I can say is that we’re 40-something days away from the election and their goal—not Ms. Ford’s goal—is to delay this past the midterms so they can win the Senate and never allow Trump to fill the seat,” Graham told reporters. “I believe that now more than ever.”

“Here’s what I’m more convinced of: The friends on the other side set it up to be just the way it is,” he continued. “I feel ambushed.”

Graham also repeatedly questioned certain elements of Ford’s testimony, focusing on her stated fears of flying as a result of the alleged attack and the payment for her lawyers and for the polygraph test she took on her allegations against Kavanaugh. 

The highly partisan attacks came as many conservative members of the media openly acknowledged that Ford appeared highly credible and that her testimony was a disaster for Republicans supporting Kavanaugh’s nomination process.

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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