She was asked the impossible. Her day to day job is protect accusers. She was asked to destroy an accuser without “hurting her feels”. She landed every single punch inside her ROE. She took an impossible mission and did it.
I agree. Her job was to create doubt, not to destroy and humiliate, which she could have easily done if she was allowed to ask leading questions backed by documentation -- and if she wasn't required to stop and restart every five minutes. As many of Mitchell's critics have pointed out, Ford repeatedly lied and contradicted herself while testifying yesterday. That did not happen by accident; rather, it was the result of a subtle, but effective cross-examination by a skilled attorney. In a normal courtroom setting, Mitchell would then have had an opportunity to summarize the inconsistencies during closing arguments in an effort to create reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors. Instead, Sen. Graham, Cruz, and others delivered the closing arguments using the inconsistencies that Mitchell obtained from Ford.
Keep in mind that Mitchell primarily defends people accused of sex crimes, where the jury is likely to sympathize with the victim. In most of these types of cases, the best defense is to sow doubt in the minds of the jurors, not to kick the crap out to the victim. And that's what Mitchell did yesterday.
I agree. Mitchell was 1st up and instantly found a broken woman and had to get out some facts without blowing her up. If Ford had literally fallen apart the day could have turned out very differently, Mitchell was perfect.