In yet another interview with CNN, Senator Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) on Wednesday voiced his full support of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s decision to refuse to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing scheduled for Monday.
Ford, who has accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh, nominee to the United States Supreme Court, of sexual assaulting her at a high school house party around 35 years ago, initially promised through her attorney to testify, but now is saying that an FBI investigation must be conducted before she will agree to appear.
“Dr. Ford is doing the appropriate thing. Dr. Ford is being reasonable,” Jones told CNN’s Manu Raju.
He added, “I think she needs to have the respect of the committee to let this play out and to do an investigation. That is not unreasonable to say. It’s unreasonable for the committee to force her hand without doing the appropriate investigation, in my opinion, and I think that they jumped the gun on this.”
Doug Jones, a red-state Dem who was viewed — at one point — as a gettable vote, expresses frustration at GOP request over Ford testimony. “It’s unreasonable for the committee to force her hand without doing a reasonable investigation. I think they jumped the gun.” pic.twitter.com/4n7A5hLc5a
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 20, 2018
This comes after Jones on Tuesday told CNN’s Jim Acosta that Mark Judge, the longtime friend of Kavanaugh who allegedly witnessed the sexual assault Ford claims took place, should be subpoenaed to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Judge submitted a letter through an attorney to the committee earlier that day saying he had “no memory of this alleged incident.”
“Brett Kavanaugh and I were friends in high school but I do not recall the party described in Dr. Ford’s letter,” he added in the letter. “More to the point, I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes. I have no more information to offer the Committee and I do not want to speak publicly regarding the incidents described in Dr. Ford’s letter.”
“You can count on the fact that [Judge’s] letter, his response, is going to be entered in the record by someone and that needs to be tested as well,” Jones said. “And I just think this committee, if he doesn’t want to do it and they’re going to go forward with a hearing, they need to subpoena him, let him say that and let some senators or someone cross-examine him.”
It should also be noted that Jones was one of three Democratic senators, along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), to send a letter this week questioning whether White House counsel Don McGahn knew of any sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh at any time during the nomination process.
In the letter, Jones and his cohorts called Ford’s accusations “serious and credible allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape.”
Even though Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sat on Ford’s allegations since July, it was McGahn that Jones, in the chastising letter, implied knew about the allegations before the public. The letter also demanded that McGahn respond to the senators’ 15 questions by Monday’s scheduled committee hearing – the one that Jones does not think Ford should attend.
When directly questioned by Fox News on Wednesday, Jones refused to answer whether the Democrats on the judiciary committee, Feinstein included, had handled the accusation fairly.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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