Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey (R, pictured above left) clashed with ABC News “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin (above right) over whether any alleged witnesses corroborated Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, during a tense segment Friday on ABC News’ “Good Morning America.”
“[Mark Judge] doesn’t corroborate [Ford]. And he does not corroborate her,” Christie said.
Hostin interrupted, insisting, “That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is.”
Christie doubled down as Hostin claimed that Judge “says he doesn’t recall what happened. That’s very, very different.”
“That’s not corroboration, Sunny,” Christie shot back.
Christie and Hostin were debating over whether Judge, whom Ford named as an eyewitness to her alleged sexual assault 36 years ago during a high school gathering in Maryland, corroborated Ford’s or Kavanaugh’s testimonies.
Judge sent a letter on Thursday “under penalty of felony” to Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) after Ford testified before the committee that same day.
Judge wrote that he does “not recall the events” Ford describes and “never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes.”
Both Kavanaugh and Ford testified Thursday. Ford became the first of three women to come forward publicly with sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee during the 11th hour of his confirmation process.
Although Ford’s emotional testimony was widely viewed as credible, Kavanaugh offered a passionate and defiant testimony before the committee, as he denied all of the sexual assault allegations against him.
But Christie and Ford could not reach an agreement over whether Judge failed to corroborate Ford’s testimony.
“Sexual assault should never be a partisan issue. That is an issue of right and wrong,” Hostin said. “And I think what is terrible here is that people are saying that her testimony, while credible, isn’t corroborated. The reason that it’s not corroborated is because the record is incomplete here.”
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“And sex assault cases, we all know as lawyers and — especially you, Chris, as a former prosecutor — that sexual assaults generally don’t have corroborating eyewitnesses,” Hostin continued. “In this case, she named an eyewitness. That’s Mark Judge.”
Christie chimed in, saying, “There’s no corroboration here even though she named a witness. She named someone who’s — excuse me.”
That’s when Hostin interrupted him, saying, “That’s because the Senate doesn’t know the truth. The Senate doesn’t want corroboration.”
“[Ford] named someone — no, Sunny, listen — You can interrupt everybody else. Don’t interrupt me this morning, OK? Save that for ‘The View,'” Christie shot back before continuing.
Watch more from the tense exchange below:
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