On the eve of a U.S. Senate hearing where a woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her will testify, Governor Charlie Baker said Senate Republicans should postpone a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination until after an independent investigation can be done.
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has accused Kavanaugh of forcing himself on her at a high school party. Kavanaugh has denied the charges.
Asked whether he believes Ford, Baker, a Republican, said, “I think when people make allegations like this they deserve to be heard.”
The governor also appeared to back Ford’s call for an FBI investigation into her allegations. The California professor asked for an FBI review before she would testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but her request was turned down by committee chairman U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).
“I think there should be a independent investigation of the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh and I also believe there should not be a vote until there is an independent investigation. Period. And I hope that that’s the direction the Senate chooses to go in,” Baker said.
Since Ford first went public with her allegations, two more women have stepped forward alleging inappropriate behavior toward women by Kavanaugh and his friends during high school and college. Grassley has tentatively scheduled a committee vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination for Friday.
While U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has said she would vote against Kavanaugh’s nomination even before Ford told her story, her Republican challenger Geoff Diehl as recently as last weekend told the Boston Herald, “I don’t think there’s any testimony or evidence at this point that indicate(s) that anything inappropriate happened, so unless we hear otherwise, he’s completed the process that would satisfy me.”
Asked Wednesday how Diehl thinks the Senate should proceed in light of new allegations, a spokesman for Diehl said, “Unlike Warren, Geoff will not jump to conclusions. As Alan Dershowitz has advocated, Geoff supports due process.”
Brett Kavanaugh 
