The plan was for Rachel Mitchell, an Arizona sex crimes prosecutor, to ask questions of both Ford and Kavanaugh on Republicans' behalf. But halfway through Kavanaugh's hearing, it was abandoned when Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas used their time to assail Democrats.

The tone shifted drastically as Mitchell was left sorting through papers and taking notes while Republican senators spoke directly over her.

Speaking during a break in the proceedings, CNN's Dana Bash said, "The whole reason why the male Republicans on this committee brought a female prosecutor in to do the questioning was because of the optics of these men asking questions of this woman who says that she was attacked by Brett Kavanaugh."

"But they completely undermined the attempt to correct the optics by pushing Rachel Mitchell aside and asking the questions themselves when it came to Brett Kavanaugh, because things were getting very down and dirty."

Bash added, "If the whole point is to have somebody who is impartial who understands these questions to ask the questions of both, boy did they undermine that."

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