Then the floor came to Feinstein, who addressed Ford directly and tartly chastised Grassley.

“Good morning, Dr. Ford,” she said. “Thank you for coming forward and being willing to share your story with us. I know this wasn’t easy for you. But before you get to your testimony, and the chairman chose not to do this, I think it’s important to make sure you’re properly introduced.”

Grassley immediately interrupted Feinstein, as perhaps she expected he might. “By the way, I was going to introduce her, but if you want to introduce her, I would be glad,” he said. “I didn’t forget to do that, because I would do that just as she was about to speak.”

That clash between 85-year-olds set the tone for the hearing to come. Something that someone said—whether it was a Democratic member, Ford herself, or Mitchell—would get Grassley’s goat, and he’d insist on jumping in. And when he did, he came across as crotchety and cranky, just what Mitchell’s insertion was meant to prevent.

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One of the problems was procedural. According to the rules of the hearing, each side gets five minutes, in turns, to question the witness. Democratic senators are doing that themselves, while each Republican is yielding to Mitchell. Mitchell, a seasoned prosecutor, is used to working without such strict limits, and has proceeded with careful, incremental questions. As Mitchell worked through her first round, Grassley had to interrupt her and cut her off to keep to time.

At another moment, Grassley cut in when Ford said she’d concluded that asking to be questioned in California was “unrealistic”; he said his staff would have been willing to question her where she lives. (Ford said she gets anxious about flying.)

As the committee prepared to take its first break, Grassley testily replied to Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who’d just concluded his questioning.

“I can’t let what Durbin, Senator Durbin said [stand],” he said. “Between July 30 and September 13, there were 45 days this committee could have been investigating this situation, and her privacy would have been protected. So something happened here in between on your side that the whole country—not the whole country should have known about it, no, not know about. We should have investigated it.”

Grassley intended to criticize Democrats for not bringing the allegations forward, but his point undercut itself: His statement that the matter warranted investigation seems at odds with his haste in scheduling a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Christine Blasey Ford is her own expert witness.

As a matter of the chairman’s privilege to speak, Grassley is well within his rights. But as a matter of appearance, he is not acquitting himself especially well. Grassley seems peevish, cranky, and stentorian, and keeps finding himself correcting or interrupting women. Such images were exactly what Republicans hoped to avoid in the hearing.