NPR

Kavanaugh And Ford Will Testify Thursday. Here's What You Need To Know

Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination was sailing through until Christine Blasey Ford came forward with a sexual assault allegation. Get caught up on what's led to Thursday's hearing.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with the American public, will for the first time on Thursday hear directly from Christine Blasey Ford, the university professor who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were both teenagers in high school.

She and Kavanaugh will both testify under oath, in public. The stakes couldn't be higher; a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court may rest on whose account senators believe. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans say they plan to follow the hearings closely, with many yet to make up their minds, according to an NPR-PBS Newshour-Marist poll.

Since Ford's accusation first came to light, two other women have come forward to accuse Kavanaugh of improper sexual conduct. And while the hearing will focus on events that allegedly occurred in the 1980's, it will be viewed through the prism of America in 2018, and the deep fault lines over gender, politics and

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