WASHINGTON (AP) - In an emotional day like few others in Senate history, California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford quietly but firmly recounted her "100 percent" certainty Thursday that President Donald Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers - and then Brett Kavanaugh defiantly testified he was "100 percent certain" he did no such thing.
That left senators to decide whether the long day tipped their confirmation votes for or against Trump's nominee in a deeply partisan fight with the future of the high court and possibly control of Congress in the balance.
Showing their own certainty, Republicans quickly scheduled a recommendation vote for this morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where they hold a 11-10 majority. They're hoping for a final Senate roll call next week, seating Kavanaugh on the court for the October start of its new term.
In the committee's packed hearing room for hour upon hour Thursday, both Kavanaugh and Ford said the alleged assault and the storm of controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse - perhaps the only thing they agreed on during their separate testimony marked by a stark contrast of tone and substance.
Ford recounted for the senators and a nationwide TV audience her long-held secret of the alleged assault in a locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15. The memory - and Kavanaugh's laughter during the act - was "locked" in her brain, she said. Ford delivered her testimony with deliberate certitude, though admitting gaps in her memory as she choked back tears at some points and said she "believed he was going to rape me."
Hours later, Kavanaugh angrily denied her allegation, alternating a loud, defiant tone with near tears of his own, particularly when discussing his family. He decried his confirmation opposition as a "national disgrace." He interrupted senators and dismissed some questions with a flippant "whatever."
"You have replaced 'advice and consent' with 'search and destroy,'" he said, referring to the Constitution's charge to senators' duties in confirming high officials.
Democrats pressed the judge to call for an FBI investigation into the claims, but he would say only, "I welcome whatever the committee wants to do."
Trump made his feelings newly clear that he was sticking by his choice. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," he tweeted. "The Senate must vote!"
Trump nominated the conservative jurist in what was supposed to be an election year capstone to the GOP agenda, locking in the court's majority for years to come. Instead, Kavanaugh has seemed in peril, and on Thursday he faced the Senate hearing amid a national reckoning over sexual misconduct at the top of powerful institutions.
The day opened with Ford, now a 51-year-old college professor in California, raising her right hand to swear under oath about the allegations she said she never expected to share publicly until they leaked in the media two weeks ago and reporters started staking out her home and work.
As Anita Hill did more two decades ago when she alleged sexual misconduct by Clarence Thomas, the mom of two testified before a committee with only male senators on the Republican side of the dais.
The psychology professor described what she says was a harrowing assault in the summer of 1982: How an inebriated Kavanaugh and another teen, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. Judge has said does not recall the incident.
When the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, of California, asked Ford how she could be sure that Kavanaugh was the attacker, Ford said, "The same way I'm sure I'm talking to you right now." Later, she said her certainty was "100 percent."
Her strongest memory of the alleged incident, Ford said, was the two boys' laughter.
"Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter," said Ford, who is a research psychologist, "the uproarious laughter between the two."
GOP special counsel Rachel Mitchell, a Phoenix sex crimes prosecutor, was hired by Republicans to avoid the optics of their all-male line up questioning Ford.
Mitchell's attempt to draw out a counter-narrative - mainly that Ford was coordinating with Democrats - was disrupted by the panel's decision to allow alternating five-minute rounds of questions from Democratic senators.
During a lunch break, even typically talkative GOP senators on the panel were without words.
John Kennedy, of Louisiana, said he had no comment. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he was "just listening."
In his testimony, Kavanaugh began: "My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed."
He almost immediately he choked up.
He lashed out over the time it took the committee to convene the hearing after Ford's allegations emerged, singling out the Democrats for "unleashing" forces against him. He mocked Ford's allegations - and several others since - that have accused him of sexual impropriety.
Even if senators vote down his confirmation, he said, "you'll never get me to quit."
Kavanaugh, who has two daughters, said one of his girls said they should "pray for the woman" making the allegations against him, referring to Ford. "That's a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old," he said choking up. "We mean no ill will."
The judge repeatedly refused to answer senators' questions about the hard-party atmosphere that has been described from his peer group at Georgetown Prep and Yale, treating them dismissively.
"Sometimes I had too many beers," he acknowledged. "I liked beer. I still like beer. But I never drank beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone."
When Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., pressed if he ever drank so much he blacked out, he replied, "Have you?" After a break in the proceedings, he came back and apologized to Klobuchar. She said her father was an alcoholic.
Behind him in the audience as he testified, his wife, Ashley, sat looking stricken.
Republicans who had been scheduled to vote as soon as today at the committee - and early next week in the full Senate - alternated between their own anger and frustration at the allegations and the process.
"You're right to be angry," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, his voice rising in anger, called the hearing the "most unethical sham since I've been in politics."
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Christine Blasey Ford declared Thursday that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her as he and a friend shared "uproarious laughter" in a locked room at a 1980s high school gathering, recounting her allegations to Congress and a riveted nation in a drama that threatens to derail Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.
Her account, delivered in a soft and sometimes-halting voice, came as the Senate Judiciary Committee held an extraordinary session that Republicans hope will salvage Kavanaugh's chances of joining the high court. She showed no hesitancy in affirming the crucial question about the alleged incident, telling senators her certainty that Kavanaugh was her attacker was "100 percent."
Ford's tone was polite but firm in three hours of testimony during which repeated her accusations but offered no major new revelations. Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona who asked all questions for the committee's all-male GOP senators, seemed to elicit no significant inconsistencies in her testimony.
When Ford finished, several women in the audience stood said loudly, "Thank you, Dr. Ford!" She appeared relieved and blew kisses to some of them. Democratic senators gathered around her for handshakes.
Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation had seemed assured until Ford came forward and then other women emerged with additional allegations of sexual misconduct. The conservative jurist, now 53, has denied them all and awaited his own chance to testify later Thursday. Ford testified for about three hours, not including time senators took out for breaks and lunch.
In an election-season battle being waged along a polarized nation's political and cultural fault lines, President Donald Trump and most Republicans have rallied behind Kavanaugh with a chance to cement the conservative majority of the court for a generation. But it has become less clear that they will be able to hold GOP senators behind Trump's nominee.
Republicans have accused Ford and the other women of making unproven allegations and have questioned why they'd not publicly revealed them for decades.
Among the television viewers on Thursday was Trump, who has mocked the credibility of Kavanaugh's accusers. The president watched aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from the United Nations, said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
During a break in the hearing, some of Kavanaugh's strongest supporters gave no indications of wavering.
"You need more than an accusation for evidence. You need corroboration. That's what's missing here," said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas.
But Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said of Ford, "She's a good witness. She's articulate, an attractive person." Asked what he meant by attractive, Hatch said, "In other words, she's pleasing."
Ford has said Kavanaugh trapped her on a bed and tried undressing her, grinding his body against her and muffling her cries with her hand. "I believed he was going to rape me," she said in her opening statement.
Democrats have rallied strongly behind Ford.
Asked by Patrick Leahy of Vermont for her strongest memory of the alleged incident, Ford mentioned the two boys' "laughter - the uproarious laughter between the two and they're having fun at my expense."
When the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, asked how she could be sure that Kavanaugh was the attacker, Ford said, "The same way I'm sure I'm talking to you right now." Later, she told Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that her certainty was "100 percent."
The 51-year-old California psychology professor spoke carefully and deliberately during the hearing, using scientific terminology at one point to describe how a brain might remember details of events decades later. The boys' laughter was "indelible in the hippocampus," she said, using her scientific expertise to describe how memories are stored in the brain and adding, "It's locked in there."
Ford has said Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge was also in the room when she was assaulted. Judge has said he doesn't remember the incident and has declined to appear before the panel.
She also recounted how the alleged attack altered her life, describing anxiety and claustrophobia that prompted her to demand adding a second front door when her home was remodeled. She also described nervousness while flying.
As Ford delivered her testimony, the hearing room fell nearly silent, with senators leaning forward to listen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., seemed to wipe away a tear.
The Judiciary panel's 11 Republicans - all men - let Mitchell ask their questions. She began by expressing sympathy for Ford, who'd said she was "terrified" to testify. Said Mitchell, "I just wanted to let you know, I'm very sorry. That's not right."
Mitchell led Ford through a detailed recollection of the events she says occurred on the day of the alleged incident. But under the committee's procedures, the career prosecutor was limited to five minutes at a time, interspersed between Democrats' questions, creating a choppy effect as she tried piecing together the story.
Mitchell's questions steered clear of the details of the alleged assault and focused at times on whether Ford was coordinating with Kavanaugh opponents. Mitchell asked who was financing her legal and security expenses. Ford responded that she had gotten help from well-to-do people back home and was aware of public contributions at the website GoFundMe.com but also said she'd not focused on such matters amid her family's recent moves due to threats.
Ford said that she had first contacted only her member of Congress, Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat, with her story and that Eshoo recommended contacting Feinstein, also from California.
At one point, Mitchell noted that Ford didn't mention Kavanaugh as her attacker before she was in couples therapy with her husband in 2012. She also seemed to question Ford's fear of flying - the professor had expressed a reluctance to fly to Washington but eventually did so - noting Ford's travel to Hawaii and Costa Rica.
At times, committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, clashed with Democrats. When Klobuchar said the committee would not allow Judge to testify during the hearing, Grassley said, "You got what you wanted. I'd think you'd be satisfied."
Kavanaugh's teetering grasp on winning confirmation was evident when Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, expressed concern, in a private meeting with senators Wednesday, about a new, third accuser, according to a person with knowledge of the gathering. Republicans control the Senate 51-49 and can lose only one vote. Collins is among the few senators who've not made clear how they'll vote.
Collins walked into that meeting carrying a copy of Julie Swetnick's signed declaration, which included fresh accusations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh and his high school friend Judge.
Republicans are pushing to seat Kavanaugh before the November midterms, when Senate control could fall to the Democrats and a replacement Trump nominee could have even greater difficulty.
In a sworn statement, Swetnick said she witnessed Kavanaugh "consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women in the early 1980s." Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, who also represents a porn actress who is suing Trump, provided her sworn declaration to the Judiciary panel.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for Deborah Ramirez, who says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party when they attended Yale University, raised her profile in a round of television interviews.
Moments before committee chairman Grassley gaveled his panel into session, Ramirez tweeted her support for Ford: "They want us to feel alone and isolated but I'm there wrapping my arms around you and I hope you feel the people of this nation wrapping their arms around all of us."
In Kavanaugh's prepared testimony, he acknowledged drinking in high school with his friends, but said he'd never done anything "remotely resembling" what Ford describes. He said he never had a "sexual or physical encounter of any kind" with her.
He also provided the committee with detailed calendar pages listing in green-and-white squares the activities that filled his summer of 1982 when he was 17 years old - exams, movies, sports and plenty of parties. That's the year when Ford says she believes the assault occurred.
Nothing on the calendar appears to refer to her.
Ford released sworn statements from people who said she had told them about the assault in later years.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, Padmananda Rama, Matthew Daly, Julie Pace and AP photographers J. Scott Applewhite and Carolyn Kaster contributed to this report.
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Kavanaugh testimony: http://apne.ws/xkhv2Yv
Ford testimony: http://apne.ws/Wpklfy3
Kavanaugh testimony from Sept. 17: http://apne.ws/fmGaR3x
Kavanaugh testimony from Sept. 25: http://apne.ws/PBbVJpg