U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said Monday she believes the new details of a sexual assault accusation against Brett Kavanaugh may derail his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, came forward publicly this weekend regarding an incident she said happened when she and Kavanaugh were teenagers. She said he "pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it," and then covered her mouth when she tried to scream.

Kavanaugh flatly denied the accusation, but cracks appeared over the weekend in previously uniform Republican support for his nomination.

In an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle editorial board, Gillibrand said the new revelations "might" change the minds of some Republican senators, at least enough to delay Kavanaugh's confirmation vote.

"I think this should affect every senator's view on Judge Kavanaugh," she said. "I'm hopeful the Senate will at least have some measure of review, maybe a hearing, some measure of analysis of this accusation, and have some measure of clarity on whether this is disqualifying. I believe it is disqualifying, given what we know."

Republican senators, she continued, "are more concerned about the timing of this allegation coming out rather than the substance of the allegation, which is very troubling."

Gillibrand would not speculate on her own political ambitions — she is often mentioned as a likely Democratic candidate for president in 2020 — but instead said her entire focus is on helping Democrats gain seats in the House of Representatives and Senate in November.

"This is a moment in history when all of us are called to make a difference because of the toxicity President Trump has created and the hate he has put into the world," she said. "If we can flip the House and flip the Senate, you can create a very effective bulwark against the worst President Trump wants to do, and we need to do it now. If you're just waiting for '20, it's going to be too late."

Limited bipartisanship

Despite the deep partisan divide in Washington, Gillibrand said she and Republican colleagues have managed to work together in a limited capacity. As an example, she pointed to a bill she and Ted Cruz co-sponsored and got passed regarding sexual harassment in Congress itself, though she noted that Congressional leaders have not allowed a conference to reconcile it with a similar successful bill in the House.

"There’s a dual purpose in standing up and speaking out about what’s wrong … while at the same time finding common ground where you can with your colleagues, and hoping you can get a vote on it," she said.

Gillibrand said her work on reforming sexual assault reporting practices in the military has stalled because the bills have not been allowed to the Senate floor for debate. She wants to take the duty of prosecuting and judging such cases out of the traditional chain of command and instead bring in outside prosecutors.

In the meantime, she said, the apparent incidence rates of both sexual assault and harassment after it is reported have remained steady, and convictions have actually gone down.

Gillibrand also compared her push for marijuana legalization to the fight for marriage equality and predicted it would happen within five years, driven in large part by the experience in the states that already allow it.

Asked about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's slow evolution on that idea, she said: "He'll get there."

JMURPHY7@Gannett.com

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