Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said that testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Brett Kavanaugh of attempted sexual assault, would not change his view of the Supreme Court nominee.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News Sunday, Graham told host Chris Wallace he was not prepared to ruin Kavanaugh's life over an accusation.
"I want to listen to her, but I'm being honest with you and everybody else," Graham said.
"What do you expect me to do? You can't bring it in a criminal court, you would never sue civilly; you couldn't even get a warrant. What am I supposed to do? Go ahead and ruin this guy's life based on an accusation? I don't know when it happened, I don't know where it happened, and everybody named in regard to being there said it didn't happen," Graham continued.
Ford said Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were involved in the incident, which she claimed took place in the early 1980s, when they were all in high school.
According to a letter she sent to Senator Dianne Feinstein detailing the allegations, "Kavanaugh physically pushed me into a bedroom as I was headed for a bathroom up a short stairwell from the living room. They locked the door and played loud music, precluding any successful attempts to yell for help.
"Kavanaugh was on top of me while laughing with Judge, who periodically jumped onto Kavanaugh. They both laughed as Kavanaugh tried to disrobe me in their highly inebriated state. With Kavanaugh's hand over my mouth, I feared he may inadvertently kill me," stated Ford.
Kavanaugh denied the allegation. Both he and Ford said they were prepared to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
But Graham indicated that the testimony would not change his views on Kavanaugh unless there was further information of which he was unaware.
"Unless there's something more, no, I'm not going to ruin Judge Kavanaugh's life over this," he said on Sunday.
"But she should come forward, she should have her say; she will be respectfully treated. I'm not going to play and game here and tell you this will wipe out his entire life. Because if nothing changes, it won't with me."
This article was updated to remove a typo from the name of the program that hosted Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday.
