On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from both Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexually assaulting her in the early 1980s, when they were both prep school students in suburban Maryland. The reaction to her accusation—as well as the other allegations against Kavanaugh that have popped up since—has sorted out mostly along partisan lines, raising the potential for a hearing that brings more heat than light. In questioning Kavanaugh and Ford, what questions should senators ask? Here’s what our panel of prominent political strategists suggest:



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Anita Dunn is managing director at the public affairs and consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker, was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and served as White House communications director in 2009.

For Judge Kavanaugh: We now have three identified women making these allegations about your behavior. At what point—if one more, two more, or three or more—would you reconsider the question of your conduct and ask what you might have done to give these women a reason to report these experiences?

For Dr. Blasey Ford: I am sorry for the abuse you and your family have had to endure, including senators who have never met you prejudging your testimony. Given your experience since you courageously stepped forward—your experience, your family’s experience—what would you say to the other survivors out there?



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Mary Matalin is a conservative political consultant and was campaign director for President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

For Judge Kavanaugh: How can the venerable statesmen of the Senate apologize to your sweet wife and precious young girls for involuntarily casting them in this remake of Idiocracy?

For Dr. Blasey Ford: Can you meet privately with Judge Kavanaugh’s family and repeat the charges you’ve brought against their father to their innocent little faces? Are you really a professor in a healing profession? At a prestigious university?



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Elizabeth Slattery is a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the host of SCOTUS 101, a podcast about everything that’s happening at the Supreme Court.

For Judge Kavanaugh: Without any other evidence, this is a classic he said/she said situation. Why should the American people believe you?

For Dr. Blasey Ford: After you made your allegation public in a Washington Post interview, why didn’t you cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation?



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Celinda Lake is a pollster and Democratic political strategist, and one of the nation’s foremost experts on electing women candidates and on framing issues to female voters. She is the president of the polling firm Lake Research Partners.

For Judge Kavanaugh: How could you belong to a drinking society called “tit and clit” and claim you didn't drink or party?

For Dr. Blasey Ford: What trauma have you suffered from this experience?



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Michelle Denise Bernard is a political analyst, lawyer, author, and president and CEO of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy.

For Judge Kavanaugh: Judge Kavanaugh, according to your handwritten notes made in the 1982 calendar you submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, you were grounded on May 7, 1982 and again, one week later on May 14, 1982. By whom were you grounded, and for what conduct had you been grounded?

For Dr. Blasey Ford: Professor Ford, you have alleged that in 1982, Judge Kavanaugh pinned you to a bed, groped you, and attempted to pull off your clothes without your consent while you both were high school students. Please describe any details or images you recall, no matter how large or small, of the moments immediately before the alleged assault occurred, during the alleged assault, and after the alleged assault. For example, what was your mood before and after the assault? What music, if any was being played at the party? Were there any odors that have stayed with you through the years? Was there any artwork, photos, decorations, or memorabilia you remember from the house where the party took place or the room where the assault occurred? Are there any physical characteristics or distinctive characteristics or anything in particular that stood out in your mind about Judge Kavanaugh or any other individual who assaulted you or was present at the house party where the assault occurred?



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Bill Burton is a Democratic strategist and served as White House deputy press secretary for President Barack Obama.

For Judge Kavanaugh: Your description of your time in high school and college in the Fox interview appears to be wildly misrepresentative of what your contemporaries have had to say about your drinking proclivities in particular. If we can’t trust you to tell the truth on the least of the accusations against you, how can we believe what you say about the far more serious ones?

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When you heard of someone acting in a way that was inappropriately sexually aggressive, what did you do? Did you ever confront a friend or associate about such a thing?

For Dr. Blasey Ford: What is your message to victims of sexual harassment or assault who have been afraid to come forward—and are now even more so after watching your experience?



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Bob Shrum is the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at the University of Southern California, and a longtime Democratic strategist.

For Judge Kavanaugh: If what you are claiming is true, why wouldn’t you welcome an FBI investigation, and why shouldn’t the committee seek and the president direct the FBI to investigate?

For Dr. Blasey Ford: When and why did you decide to come forward with this allegation?