CNN
—
Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor who accused Supreme Court docket Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, used a uncommon interview to element the trauma she faced after her explosive allegations thrust her right into a charged affirmation battle for one of many nation’s strongest positions.
Talking on CBS Sunday Morning, Ford described how she wasn’t ready for the backlash her 2018 testimony would encourage and steered she may not have come ahead if she had realized how that have would have an effect on her and her household.
“I like to make use of the phrase ‘idealistic,’ however possibly I used to be naïve for certain in regards to the penalties and the way dangerous it will be after I testified,” Ford stated, based on an excerpt of the interview posted on-line. “In a means that was really good – that I didn’t actually understand how it will play out later. As a result of if I had identified, I don’t suppose I’d have jumped off the diving board.”
Ford, who has written a memoir about her experiences that can publish on Tuesday, emerged as a central determine within the affirmation of former President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court docket nominee after she alleged Kavanaugh assaulted her throughout a celebration they attended in 1982, once they have been in highschool.
Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations.
Kavanaugh was narrowly confirmed and has since grow to be a key voice on the Supreme Court docket – a sometimes-harbinger of which means its conservative 6-3 supermajority is leaning on controversial points like abortion, weapons and affirmative motion.
Ford, till now, has remained largely out of view. Within the aftermath of the emotional Senate listening to at which she detailed her allegations, Ford stated she needed to repeatedly transfer her household and likewise rent non-public safety in response to threats she acquired.
“I want I’d identified there wouldn’t be a gradual step into the general public eye, one which I might navigate by myself phrases,” her memoir reads, based on an excerpt of the book published by CBS. “I had lived a comparatively quiet life as a mother, professor, and surfer. Fairly actually in a single day, I turned a headline information merchandise. With little preparation, my identify can be eternally encompassed by one picture – me in a navy-blue go well with I’d by no means usually put on, being sworn in to solemnly inform the reality.”