Mod Edit: This thread is not for discussing the 2016 primaries.
Will add more streaming links as they pop up.
Streaming links:
C-Span
WaPo - YT
WaPo - Twitch
CBS - YT
Live updates (text, for those that can't watch):
Huff Post
The Guardian
Time: It starts at 10am ET/7am PT
Ford's testimony here.
Article link.
What is happening at the hearing?
Do we know what will be said?
Why does this all matter and what happens next?
Judge Brett Kavanaugh & Professor Christine Blasey Ford Testify
The Senate Judiciary Committee hears testimony from Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Professor Christine Blasey Ford about her allegations that Judge Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were teenagers.
Will add more streaming links as they pop up.
Streaming links:
C-Span
WaPo - YT
WaPo - Twitch
CBS - YT
Live updates (text, for those that can't watch):
Huff Post
The Guardian
Time: It starts at 10am ET/7am PT
Ford's testimony here.
Article link.
What is happening at the hearing?
It's scheduled to get under way in the Senate Judiciary Committee at 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT) and could last five hours.
It is set to be highly dramatic. No-one has seen or heard the 51-year-old Prof Ford publicly, apart from a few grainy pictures, since the allegations arose.
After addresses by the leading Republican and Democrat members, Prof Ford will deliver her opening statement.
The 21 senators on the committee will then have five minutes each to ask her questions.
The 10 Democrats will pose questions themselves and are expected to ask how the incident affected her and why it took her so long to talk about it.
The 11 Republicans, all men, are expected to defer most of their questions to a female lawyer, Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell.
Prof Ford will reportedly then leave the room and Brett Kavanaugh will enter. Prof Ford had earlier asked not to be in the same room as the judge.
Mr Kavanaugh, 53, will deliver his statement and the same round of questioning will follow.
A Democratic Party aide told Associated Press that its senators would try to make him look nervous and would address inconsistencies in his earlier statements.
Do we know what will be said?
Both Prof Ford and Mr Kavanaugh have released written testimony ahead of the hearing.
In her testimony, Prof Ford will say: "It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court. My responsibility is to tell the truth."
She will allege Mr Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge locked her in a bedroom during a small gathering at a house in Washington DC suburbs in the summer of 1982.
She will say Mr Kavanaugh tried to drunkenly remove her clothing, pinned her to a bed and groped her at a party when she was 15 and he was 17.
"Brett's assault on me drastically altered my life. For a very long time, I was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone the details," she writes.
In his written testimony, Mr Kavanaugh denies Prof Ford's allegation "immediately, unequivocally, and categorically", along with all other accusations against him.
The written testimony suggests Mr Kavanaugh will not try to portray himself as a saint.
He will say: "I was not perfect in those days, just as I am not perfect today. I drank beer with my friends, usually on weekends. Sometimes I had too many."
But he will also say that what he has been accused of is "far more serious than juvenile misbehaviour".
Why does this all matter and what happens next?
The Senate Judiciary Committee must vote on Mr Kavanaugh's confirmation before it is passed to the full Senate for a vote there.
A vote by the committee is scheduled for Friday but its chairman, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, has left open the possibility it might be delayed again.
All 10 Democratic members on the committee have called on President Trump to "immediately withdraw" Mr Kavanaugh's nomination.
Republicans want their nominee in place before the looming midterm elections, when they could lose their 51-49 control of the Senate.
Any confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh could also affect female voters in November. The confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas despite allegations of sexual harassment fuelled the rise of a new generation of female politicians in the 1992 national elections.
Supreme Court judges are nominated by the president and hold the position for life.
Mr Kavanaugh's presence on the court could give it a more conservative character for decades.
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