Cantwell, Hutchison Stances on Kavanaugh Fall Along Party Lines

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Both have staked out positions of patience pending an ongoing FBI probe, but drilling deeper into the stances of Washington's U.S. Senate candidates unsurprisingly reveals each falling into the entrenched partisanship that, so far, has defined the unresolved Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.

Their contrasting views on President Donald Trump's nominee could be cast into the spotlight Monday, as three-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell and her Republican challenger Susan Hutchison take the stage at 12:30 p.m. at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma for the first of two debates leading up to the November midterm election.

Each candidate says she's supportive of this week's FBI background investigation of Kavanaugh before the votes are cast on his nomination.

"Dr. (Christine Blasey) Ford's strong testimony should be enough to stop any further votes before a complete nonpartisan investigation takes place," Cantwell said in a statement to the media this past week, after both Kavanaugh and Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I'd have to wait until the FBI investigation is complete, " Hutchison said Monday, when asked if she supports Kavanaugh's nomination.

But where the two candidates seem to diverge on the issue centers on their take on the credibility of Ford's allegations that Kavanaugh sexually abused her during a house party in 1982.

A day before Ford testified, Cantwell gave a floor speech calling for a nonpartisan investigation of Ford's allegations and those of two other women who also have accused Kavanaugh.

"I guarantee you, any woman in the United States of America who has been assaulted remembers she was assaulted," Cantwell said. "Now, she may not remember exactly what the person was wearing. She may not remember every person that was there. But I guarantee you, it is seared into their mind, into their heart, into their soul that they have been assaulted."

Then, after Ford's testimony, Cantwell said: "Dr. Ford showed great strength and courage in painting for the nation the long-lasting impacts of sexual assault."

This week, Hutchison also said she believes Ford -- to an extent.

"I believe Dr. Ford is a troubled woman who has had some form of sexual abuse," Hutchison said during a visit to The Seattle Times. "I think when she spoke she spoke for the cause, and the cause of course being sexual violence."

But Hutchison also questioned whether the assault on Ford really occurred at the hands of Kavanaugh. She pointed to part of Ford's testimony to the committee this past week in which Ford detailed her insistance on installing a second front door on her home as illustrative of the lasting trauma of Kavanaugh's alleged abuse of her.

"That story about the two doors -- the two doors, the front doors, whatever that means -- that had nothing to do with her story" alleging Kavanaugh assaulted her, Hutchison said.



"In her story, she walked out of the house. Nobody was chasing her, they had ignored her at that point, I guess. At least that's her story -- she said she came down the stairs, she heard voices and she left. But the two doors would describe a trauma that happened to her where she felt trapped and was unable to get out of a place."

Asked if she believed Ford had been assaulted, but not by Kavanaugh, Hutchison said: "I believe that both of them were credible. I do think the problem is her memory over all those years, and when the whole thing devolved into analysis of his high-school year book, it was a national disgrace."

Hutchison blamed Democrats for politicizing Ford's allegations as an unnecessary "tactic and a strategy to delay" Kavanaugh's confirmation.

"I think (Democrats have) been terrible to Dr. Ford, and certainly they've ruined the life of Kavanaugh," she said.

Cantwell, unlike her Democratic counterpart, Sen. Patty Murray -- who this past week announced "Kavanaugh should withdraw immediately" -- has not directly condemned Kavanaugh based on Ford's testimony, or the other sexual-abuse allegations against him.

In early September, Cantwell issued a lengthy news release opposing Kavanaugh's nomination based on a review of "his full record." The statement noted that in 2006, Cantwell voted against Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Since his confirmation to that court, Kavanaugh, according to Cantwell's statement, had "refused to uphold the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act ... ruled in favor of a restrictive voter identification law, supported expanded warrantless surveillance and maintained that the FCC's net neutrality rule was unconstitutional."

Cantwell's statement also raised concerns about Kavanaugh's mostly silent positions during his confirmation process on questions about Roe v. Wade and whether he believes the president could pardon himself.

"His views raise fundamental questions about whether he will uphold the Court's role in our constitutional system of checks and balances at this critical time in our nation's history," Cantwell's statement said.

Cantwell, who turns 60 this month and is seeking her fourth six-year term, and Hutchison, 64, the former Washington Republican Party chair, will square off in the two upcoming debates hosted by the Washington State Debate Coalition that were finally confirmed this week after the senator's scheduling issues.

Monday's debate will be telecast live on KING (channel 5) and KIRO (channel 7), with rebroadcasts at 7 p.m. by KCTS, TVW and KONG.

The second debate will take place at 3 p.m. Oct. 20 at Spokane Community College.