People (you are an exception, obviously), seemed to think Mitchell’s job was to act as a prosecutor would during a trial with the perp and/or a hostile witness and to “break” Ford, prove her a liar, come up with a Perry Mason/Columbo moment, etc.
No, that was not her job. Her job was to:
- Prevent the damaging optic of all, mostly old, white Republicans “attacking” poor Chrissy Ford, sexual assault victim. The bad optics were avoided.
- Prevent charges that Ford was abused, handled roughly, etc. during the hearing. Mitchell’s experience in gently getting info out of true sexual assault victims worked beautifully with Ford. Mitchell elicited several occasions where Ford was lying or appeared to have lied. Certainly, she brought out how bad Ford’s memories were, both short term & long term, EXCEPT those required to stop Kavanaugh. To anyone with an open mind, that was apparent.
- Give Senators like Flake (also from AZ like Mitchell - supposedly she was who he wanted to do the questioning), Collins, Murkowski, etc. the Ford hearing they wanted, without causing further damage to the Republicans. That is the hearing they got.
- Give Kavanaugh a chance to hear the specific accusations against him for the first time and to rebut each and every one. Mitchell brought up every salient point/accusation from Ford and gave Kavanaugh that opportunity to forcefully and unequivocally deny them.
Mitchell did her job in a competent, workmanlike way and accomplished her goals.
As for Grassley, I am not unhappy with him during this hearing. He was not antagonistic toward Kavanaugh that I saw - he interrupted several times when Kavanaugh was being bashed by Dems (like over the FBI investigation bullsh!t they kept bringing up). Several times he gave Kavanaugh extra time to answer a Democr@p question/accusation in full. He ran the hearing efficiently, kept it moving along, and stayed in control.
YEP ... THANX.
Agree completely with your assessment.
Mitchell did her job perfectly.
I also believe she already knew she would only be asking Kavanaugh a couple of questions. That’s why she got right to the point with him. She got him on record for the most important denials and that was all that was necessary.
Also if you have heard any of her post hearing comments there is no doubt she is one of us.