On Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the world, that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both teenagers. Her soft voice cracked as she spoke. She smiled a lot; her attempts to make everyone see how agreeable and reasonable she is were heart-rending. But she was also poised and precise, occasionally speaking as an expert — she’s a psychology professor — as well as a victim. Watching her push through her evident terror was profoundly inspiring.

The hearing, by contrast, was profoundly dispiriting. If I were allowed to curse in The New York Times, this column would be one word repeated over and over. There is no reason Republicans had to put Blasey through that cruel, wrenching process. It made sense for her to testify, but not like that, as if she were on trial, or imposing on the committee’s precious time. It’s inexcusable that Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge, who Blasey identifies as a witness to the alleged assault, hasn’t been questioned, and that there are no plans to do so. Perhaps if senators had heard sworn testimony from Judge — who wrote books detailing his youthful binge drinking — they might have decided to call the whole degrading spectacle off.

Blasey asked the Republicans on the panel — all of them men — to engage with her directly, one human being to another. Instead, they had her interrogated about minutia by a female prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, brought in to give them cover. The prosecutor’s questions seemed like setups for gotcha moments that never came. Mitchell largely ignored the alleged crime itself, instead trying to catch Blasey on extraneous matters, like the fact that she’s traveled on airplanes despite her stated fear of flying.

Nevertheless, Blasey maintained her composure. She responded without guile, as if the whole ordeal really were a collaborative fact-finding endeavor. She was widely seen as credible, and not just by feminists inclined to sympathize with her. “This is a disaster for the Republicans,” said Fox News’s Chris Wallace.