EXCERPT:
GRASSLEY: "We will hear from two witnesses, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. Thanks, of course, to Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh for accepting our committee’s invitation to testify and also thank them for their volunteering to testify before we even invite it. Both Dr. Ford and judge Kavanaugh have been through a terrible couple weeks. They and their families have received vile threats. What they have endured ought to be considered by all of us as unacceptable and a poor reflection on the state of civility in our democracy. So I want to apologize to you both for the way you’ve been treated and I intend hopefully for today’s hearing to be safe, comfortable, and dignified for both of our witnesses. I hope my colleagues will join me in that is effort of a show of civility. With that said, I’ll lament this hearing — how this hearing has come about.”