Ford accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault in 2018 during his Supreme Court confirmation process
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Christine Blasey Ford said Tuesday that she didn't realize until she was walking into the Senate chamber in September 2018 that her testimony about her alleged assault at the hands of now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh would be nationally televised.
Ford joined the co-hosts of "The View" on Tuesday to discuss her new memoir, "One Way Back."
"I never thought I'd have that day on television. I thought I would share the information with the senators and they would do with it what they felt was necessary. So I thought I was being helpful, I was trying to collaborate with them and it was a three-month process of working up to that day on TV," Ford said.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin noted Ford wrote she felt she would be able to remain anonymous.
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Christine Blasey Ford sat down with the co-hosts of "The View" on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
"You said you were idealistic about the process and you thought you’d be able to stay anonymous. The story would blow over in 24 hours and that Trump may even nominate someone else to avoid the embarrassment, which he didn’t and you didn’t find out until you were walking into the hearing that it would be televised. What was that moment like for you?" Griffin asked.
Ford said she was "very idealistic," having grown up in Washington, D.C., and said it served her well because otherwise she would have never gone to see her district's member of Congress.
"I was very adamant that I didn't want a camera, I'm a little afraid of the camera. And they said, 'Well, we need to have one camera so that all the senators will be able to see you,' and they were telling me that when I was walking down the hallway and it was too late to worry about it at that point, so they said it would be on C-SPAN, and I was just telling myself, ‘OK, nobody is going to watch C-SPAN. My friends are all at work. None of my friends are going to see C-SPAN at work, fine.’ And then they said, ‘Well, something about people have the rights to pick up C-SPAN if they would like to,’ and clearly they did," Ford continued.
The hearing that featured Ford and Kavanaugh's testimony and question-and-answer sessions with U.S. Senators was shown live on every major cable and broadcast network, drawing more than 20 million viewers.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh gestures as he speaks at a judicial conference, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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Co-host Joy Behar scolded the show's live audience during the episode, specifically the male members of the audience, for not applauding Ford during her media appearance.
"They need to understand, they have to step up to help us. We can’t do this ourselves. I notice, I watch when people were clapping. Some of the men did not clap in this audience," Behar said, gesturing toward those in attendance.
She had previously asked about the thousands of letters Ford received in support after she came forward.
In front of the Senate Judiciary committee in September 2018, Ford testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while drunk at a high school party in the early 1980s.
Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP)
Ford claimed Kavanaugh held her on a bed and tried to remove her clothes while he covered her mouth with her hand. At the hearing, she said, "I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming."
Kavanaugh staunchly denied the accusation and was eventually narrowly confirmed that year.
Fox News' Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
