Bill Kelly: Sexual assault allegations as a political football

The most tragic takeaway from yesterday’s Kavanaugh-Blasey Ford testimony before a U.S. Senate committee is that any empathy and compassion that should be extended to the victims of sexual assault clearly takes a back seat to political expediency.

Yesterday’s hearing was not about seeking the truth, it was instead, a staged and predetermined sideshow for senators to play to their political base.

Republican senators, fearful of being perceived as bullies, declined to engage Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Instead, they hired a female Republican prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, to do their dirty work for them.

Of course, once Ford left the room, those same senators impugned her testimony and then attacked their favourite targets, the Democrats, the Clintons and of course, the media for allegedly conjuring up this controversy.

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To make matters worse, even Brett Kavanaugh, who is seeking a seat on the highest court in the land, joined in the attacks, which should have raised concerns about the impartiality of a judge.

There has been enough evidence presented to cast doubt on the choir boy image that Kavanaugh tries to present, but the Republicans have already decided that there will be no further investigation.

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Most troubling, though, is that support for either Ford or Kavanaugh seems not to be based on facts, but on which political party you vote for.

That political leaders would treat allegations of sexual assault as a political football, as they did yesterday, is nothing short of tragic.

Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML