Kavanaugh's second accuser, Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez, had a message for Ford.

"They want us to feel alone and isolated but I'm there wrapping my arms around you," she said, according to lawyer John Clune.

Ramirez alleges Kavanaugh exposed his genitals in her face during a drinking game at a college dormitory party.

She claims she ended up touching his genitals as she tried to push him away.

Video of a Montana mother defending male "groping" to MSNBC is gaining attention online.

"Groping a woman? What is that at 18? I mean, how many guys, you know, think that's no big deal," she said, gesturing towards her two daughter, one of whom is wearing a Trump t-shirt.

"It doesn’t take away from his character and his job to do what he needs to do as a Supreme Court nominee," she says.

The BBC's Georgina Rannard spoke to a woman who travelled to Washington from New York City to show her support for Christine Blasey Ford.

Protesters and activists are lining up near the room where the hearing is set to take place.

Support for Trump's Supreme Court nominee has dropped 11% among Republican women since last week, according to one poll.

The Morning Consult / Politico poll - released on Wednesday - found that 49% of women thought Kavanaugh should be confirmed, compared to 60% the previous week.

The survey involved 1,966 registered voters.

The BBC's Gary O'Donoghue, external and Harry Low, external spoke to an pro-abortion rights group looking to lobby senators before the Kavanaugh hearings.

Christine Blasey Ford has reportedly arrived on Capitol Hill. But her husband has not joined her - he's with the couple's children back in California, says a spokeswoman.

She came to Washington with friends, according to CBS News.

The BBC's Georgina Rannard spoke with these female supporters of Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill ahead of today's hearing.

Image source, Getty Images

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California are chairing the committee.

Both senators are 85 years old, with a combined 63 years in the Senate.

Republicans have criticised Feinstein for not having earlier disclosed the letter she received, containing Ford's allegations, to her fellow committee members.

Feinstein received the letter on 30 July, but its contents weren't publicly revealed until 16 September.

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In an interview with the BBC before entering the hearing chamber, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said he plans to question Kavanaugh on a "pattern of vile sexual assault allegations from credible courageous sexual assault victims".

He called Kavanaugh’s previous testimony "evasive and seemingly misleading".

Blumenthal told the BBC’s Gary O’Donoghue that he believes Ford, because "she has nothing to gain and everything to lose", and "she has asked for an FBI investigation".

"That’s the way to uncover the facts and evidence. Trained professional investigators."

Some of the questioning Mr Kavanaugh will face could go into very personal areas.

Interviews with senators that were made public on Wednesday evening featured a denial that he had ever engaged in threesomes.

"I've never participated in sexual activity with more than one woman present and me," he said.

In a Fox News interview earlier in the week, he said he remained a virgin for "many years" after high school.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Fox

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is casting doubt on an allegation against the judge by a third woman who came forward on Wednesday. In a sworn affidavit, Julie Swetnick alleges Kavanaugh was involved in the drugging and sexual assault of girls at house parties in the 1980s. The Washington DC resident says she was the victim of a gang rape in 1982 at a party attended by the judge.

Senator Graham of South Carolina Fox News: "I’ve never met her. So I believe him.

"I don’t buy this. I don’t believe any reasonable person would go to a party where people are being drugged and raped and not tell anybody about it but keep going for 10 times over a two-year period.

"Brett Kavanaugh is not a serial rapist. And those that say he is – that’s just a lie."

If Kavanaugh is approved by the judiciary committee, Graham said he would vote to confirm him to the top court.

"He doesn't have to prove to me that he wasn't at a party 35 years ago when you can't tell him where it was or when it was," said Graham.

"She has to convince me there is credibility to the allegations beyond the allegation. Something could have well happened to her but there is no evidence it was Brett Kavanaugh."

Image source, Getty Images

Former Trump campaign manager and current counsellor to the president Kellyanne Conway, spoke to the BBC's White House reporter Tara McKelvey this morning.

"It may turn out they’re both right," she said of Kavanaugh and Ford.

Conway has previously said the Senate ought to hear from the judge's accuser.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

The accuser and the accused, in the glare of the spotlight, with a lifetime seat to the most powerful court in the US at stake.

While the drama will be intensely personal, as she alleges he assaulted her and he strongly rejects the accusation, this is more than a clash of two individuals and their recollection of past events.

It also represents the confluence of two movements - one decades in the making, the other a recent, powerful groundswell.

The futures - and the reputations - of Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford hang in the balance. Whether they like it or not, however, the forces at motion overshadow everything.

Read more from Anthony on The Supreme Showdown for Trump’s America.

We’re providing gavel-to-gavel coverage as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testify in a small Senate office room today. She says he sexually assaulted her in 1982 when they were high school students.

The judiciary committee hearing begins in one hour and could stretch into the afternoon. The balance of power on America's highest court and on Capitol Hill, the shape of the 2020 presidential race, and the momentum of the #MeToo movement could hinge on today's drama.

Ford, a California psychology professor, will go first. Then the conservative appeals court judge. He was nominated in July by President Trump, and seemed a shoo-in, but the accusations by Ford and two other women, which he denies, have left Kavanaugh’s nomination dangling by a thread.

If he can survive what's expected to be a mauling from Democratic senators today, the committee could vote on his appointment on Friday, with a final Senate vote early next week.

Image source, AFP