Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) deemed Christine Blasey Ford “attractive” on Thursday after she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Asked what he thought about Blasey, Hatch told reporters: “I don’t find her un-credible. I think she’s an attractive, good witness.”
Asked to clarify “attractive,” he responded: “In other words, she’s pleasing.”
The ensuing Twitter storm prompted Matt Whitlock, Hatch’s deputy communications director, to send out several tweets to insist that Hatch was using the word attractive to refer to “personalities, not appearances.”
The damage was done either way. People on Twitter questioned why Hatch would use the words “pleasing” and “attractive” to describe someone who had just offered a traumatic and deeply disturbing account of being sexually assaulted as a teenager.
Many saw the remark as a sign that Hatch was more preoccupied with Blasey’s comportment before the committee than with the content of her testimony.
And some just suggested it was time for Hatch to retire.
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