Grassley breaks news in tweet that reads like direct message to Kavanaugh
Joel Shannon
The curious tweet Friday night in which Sen. Chuck Grassley told the world he was extending his deadline for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to decide whether she would testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee led politicos, journalists and the twitterati to wonder: Was the 85-year-old's missive supposed to be public?
That's because the Iowa Republican's tweet read like a direct message to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a house party in the 1980s, when they both were teenagers at Washington-area private schools. Kavanaugh has repeatedly and categorically denied the accusation.
Republicans and Democrats want Ford to testify before the committee; committee leaders have been negotiating the terms with her lawyers.
"Judge Kavanaugh," Grassley tweeted Friday night, "I just granted another extension to Dr Ford to decide if she wants to proceed w the statement she made last week to testify to the senate She shld decide so we can move on I want to hear her. I hope u understand. It’s not my normal approach to b indecisive."
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Twitter users responded to Grassley in kind, with direct messages.
Other tweets from Grassley on Friday night read like a group chat, with direct appeals to Ford and text-message shorthand.
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"Five times now we hv granted extension for Dr Ford to decide if she wants to proceed w her desire stated one wk ago that she wants to tell senate her story Dr Ford if u changed ur mind say so so we can move on I want to hear ur testimony. Come to us or we to u," Grassley tweeted.
Grassley's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The senator has a history of sending confusing tweets. In 2014, Buzzfeed cataloged 20 such messages in an article titled '20 Tweets By Senator Chuck Grassley That Will Make You Say, "WHAT?!"'
A survey of his recent twitter activity shows that Grassley rarely mentions other Twitter accounts and routinely posts messages laden with short-hand.