What Happened In The Brett Kavanaugh Hearing

Although … the political media likes to latch on to early narratives and can be slow to update them as more information unfolds. So maybe, if everyone decides now that this hearing is going poorly for Kavanaugh, that will be the prevailing sentiment on tonight’s cable news shows and tomorrow’s newspapers no matter how Kavanaugh does this afternoon. So maybe it was good for Democrats that Ford went first.

Micah, I think it’s pretty obvious. Ford was very effective in her opening statement, to the point that even Fox News hosts were conceding as much. And Mitchell didn’t really land a blow on her and didn’t seem that interested in doing so — we can debate how much of that was the format or whatever else. Both phases of that — the opening statement and the questions — went about as poorly as they could for the GOP.

Micah, I think the only thing people will remember is Ford’s emotional opening statement. Mitchell came across well but her questions were so gentle that they didn’t make much of a difference. Frankly, they were kind of boring.

Overall, I think the first half of the hearing was very very good for the anti-Kavanaugh camp. But the pro-Kavanaugh camp hasn’t had a chance to respond, so it’s too early to say the hearing’s impact is decided.