Politics

On Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh.

When asked how certain she is that Kavanaugh assaulted her, Blasey Ford told the committee: “100 percent.”

From her opening statement:

While American citizens have been transfixed by the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the hearing shocked the world as well.

What impact will Blasey Ford’s appearance before the Senate have on the global stage?

The afternoon before her testimony, the president held a freewheeling 81-minute press conference after his appearance at the U.N. General Assembly.

A wild turn of events on Friday flipped a new FBI investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh from a long shot into a sure thing.

That was one result of an eleventh-hour agreement among the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee after a contentious session of offstage horse-trading.

The panel voted to recommend the embattled Kavanaugh to the full Senate on the condition that the final floor vote not take place until after the FBI conducted a background investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct confronting the nominee.

A raw, emotional scene played out on Capitol Hill on Friday morning, minutes after Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, one of a handful of Republicans expected to decide the fate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, announced he would vote in favor of confirmation.

Two women confronted the Republican lawmaker as he boarded an elevator, telling him they are survivors of rape and sexual assault. Their identities were not immediately available to NPR.

Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET Saturday

President Trump has ordered the FBI to conduct a limited "supplemental investigation" into his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, to update the judge's background check, following a deal struck by Senate Republicans to move the nomination forward.

The move comes after Senate Republicans agreed to delay a vote on Kavanaugh's nomination to give the FBI one week to look into the allegation of sexual assault brought against him by Christine Blasey Ford, which the federal appeals court judge denies.

Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET

The American Bar Association said the Senate should not hold a confirmation vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court until the FBI investigated sexual assault allegations against him that were made by Christine Blasey Ford and other women.

Across the country, Americans were transfixed Thursday by television coverage of Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh as they testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ford spoke of her allegation that the Supreme Court nominee had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers in 1982. Kavanaugh vehemently denied it.

Across the U.S., people spent the day rapt, watching or listening to the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

The proceedings were emotional throughout, as Ford told the story of the sexual assault that she alleges Kavanaugh made against her when the two were in high school, more than 30 years ago.