High drama as Kavanaugh, Ford hearing gets underway

The Senate Judiciary Committee begins its historic hearing in which Brett Kavanaugh hopes to salvage his Supreme Court nomination by fending off allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he’d molested her when both were in high school.

Kavanaugh and Ford are the only witnesses invited to testify before the panel of 11 Republicans — all men — and 10 Democrats. But the conservative jurist is facing allegations of sexual misconduct from other women as well, forcing Republican leaders to struggle to keep support for him from eroding.

The committee is to hear first from Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who accuses him of attempting to rape her when they were teens.