Texas Republican John Cornyn says the whole hearing reminds him of the anti-communist McCarthy hearings of the 1950s.

"I can't think of a more embarrassing scandal for the US senate since the McCarthy hearings," Republican Senator John Cornyn says. "Do you understand you've been accused of multiple crimes?"

"I'm painfully aware," Kavanaugh says. He later adds: "My life is totally and permanently altered."

"Judge, don't give up. The American people are listening to this and they will make their decision."

"I will always be a good person and try to be a good judge, whatever happens," Kavanaugh says.

"In order to vote against your nomination, we'd have to conclude you are a serial liar and you've exposed yourself to legal jeopardy. Some of my colleagues say the burden is not on the accuser, the burden is on you. But it's impossible for you to prove the negative."

Senator Cornyn says the other side needs to come forward with some corroborations, not just allegations.

"You're right to be angry. The burden's not on you to disprove the allegations made."

Image source, Getty Images

"Devils triangle?" asks Whitehouse, referring to a yearbook group that Kavanaugh is listed as being a member of.

"Drinking game," he says.

He also denies that other club names referred to having sexual relations with female students.

Republican Sen Lindsey Graham's ferocious speech defending Kavanaugh has been widely praised by conservative commentators.

"What does 'ralph' refer to?" asks Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat.

Kavanaugh says it refers to vomiting and says "I'm known to have a weak stomach and always have".

Whitehouse wants to know if it is referring to alcohol consumption.

"I like beer, I don't know if you do. What do you like to drink?" he presses Whitehouse.

Whitehouse asks what "boof" means.

"It refers to flatulence, senator, I was 16," he responds.

First Lady Melania Trump has apparently not been tuning into the Capitol Hill proceedings.

“We’ve been in meetings all day,” her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told CBS.

Image source, Getty Images

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham launches into an impassioned speech.

"If you wanted an FBI investigation you could've come to us," he tells his Democratic colleagues.

"You wanted to destroy this guy's life. You've got nothing to apologise for," he tells Kavanaugh

"This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. If you really wanted to know the truth you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy!

"You had no intention of protecting Dr Ford - she's as much as a victim as you are.

"Let me tell you when it comes to this: you're looking for a fair process? You came to the wrong town at the wrong time, my friend."

He also says: "You're supposed to be Bill Cosby when you're a junior and senior in high school, and then all of a sudden got over it."

Graham continues: "This isn't a job interview. This is hell. This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward, because of this crap."

He tells his Republican colleagues, if they vote no, they're legitimising "this charade".

"I intend to vote for you and I hope everybody who is fair-minded will."

"I welcome whatever the committee wants to do because I'm telling the truth," says Kavanaugh, angrily speaking over Senator Durbin.

He tells Durbin he is asking a "phony question" when he asks why he hasn't called for an FBI investigation.

The FBI "doesn't reach conclusions" but only asks questions, says Kavanaugh.

"I will do whatever the committee wants," he says when asked if he wants an FBI investigation.

When asked if an FBI investigation is what Kavanaugh personally wants, the judge sits there for a moment, leading Durbin to ask: "You won't answer?"

"I said I would welcome anything. I'm innocent," he says.

Senator Durbin says: "You started off with an impassioned statement at the beginning and I can try to imagine what you've been through, your family's been through, and I'm sure I wouldn't get close to it.

"You wouldn't," Kavanaugh adds.

Durbin says Kavanaugh should ask Trump to suspend the confirmation process until an investigation is complete - to put these allegations "to rest if they are false".

"An FBI investigation is the only way to answer some of these questions," Durbin says.

Grassley angrily stops the clock and says it's the committee who is running the meeting, not the White House.

"We are here because people wanted to be heard," Grassley says. "Regardless of what you say...we're not suspending this hearing."

"Yes, we went to parties, yes, of course we went to parties," says Kavanaugh.

"If we want to sit here and talk about whether a Supreme Court nomination should be based on a high school yearbook page, I think that will be taking us to a new level of absurdity."

Senator Leahy says he is trying to find out if "Bart O’Kavanaugh", a character in Mark Judge's memoir who vomits and passes out in a car, is Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh goes into his old friend Judge's therapy and drug addiction and says Judge wrote a "fictionalised account", picking out names from friends as characters.

"So we don't know that that's you or not? I'm trying to get a straight answer from you under oath. Are you the Bart O'Kavanaugh he's referring to, yes or no?"

"You'd have to ask him," Kavanaugh finally says.

"Well, I agree with you there," Senator Leahy says.

"Are you aware in Maryland there is no statute of limitations that prohibit you being charged even if this happened in 1982? Have you, at any time, been contacted by members of local police agencies regarding this matter?"

"No, ma'am," he says.

Mitchell asks if he's ever been accused formally or informally of unwanted sexual behaviour.

Kavanaugh says no.

"I busted my butt in academics," Kavanaugh says after engaging in a brief shouting match with Leahy.

"I'm gonna talk about my high school record if you're going to sit here and mock me," he says, leading to Chairman Grassley to appeal to Leahy to "let him finish".

"Let me finish," he says, as he talks about charitable projects he did in high school.

Kavanaugh returns from recess, and tussles with Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy.

"Senator, let me finish," he says, when asked if he wants Mark Judge to testify, as the two men talk over each other.

He points out that Judge has already submitted written testimony.

"Mark Judge was a friend of ours in high school that developed a very serious drinking problem, an addiction problem, that lasted decades.

"As part of his therapy, or as part of his coming to grips with sobriety, he wrote a book that was a fictionalised account."

He says "we shouldn't sit here and make fun of some guy's addiction".

Leahy denies they are making fun of Judge.

During the break, commentators and journalists reflected on Kavanaugh's statement and Mitchell's first questions.

"Have you ever been alone in a room with Dr Ford and Mark Judge?" asks prosecutor Mitchell

"No," Kavanaugh says.

"Have you ever ground or rubbed your genitals against Dr Ford?"

"No."

"Have you ever covered Dr Ford's mouth with your hand?"

"No."

Have you ever tried to remove her clothes?"

No."

"After drinking, did you ever wake up in a different location than you remembered?" Mitchell asks.

Kavanaugh says no.

"Did you ever wake up with fewer clothes on?"

Again, a "no".

"Did anyone ever tell you about something that happened in your presence that you didn't remember?"

"We drank beer, so did the vast majority of people our age at the time, but at any rate, we drank beer, and still do. So whatever - yeah."

Kavanaugh is asked the same question again by Mitchell, and this time he says "no".

"Have you ever passed out from drinking?" asks the prosecutor.

"Passed out? No. But I've gone to sleep, but I've never blacked out. That's the allegation," Kavanaugh says.

"That's wrong," he says.

He says he never woke up in another location after a night of drinking, and never forgot anything that happened to him when he was drinking beer.

"I drank beer. So do I think the vast majority of people my age at the time."

"The Swetnick thing is a joke. Its a farce," he says about a woman who accused him of allegedly attending parties in which women were preyed upon and gang raped.

"Would you like to say more about it?" asks Feinstien.

"No," he says, leading to a few chuckles from the audience in the chamber.

Kavanaugh says he would have preferred to have an immediate hearing to clear the allegations, as he pours scorn on reports about his alleged misdeeds.

He denounced rumours about his behaviour, citing media reports that, "I'm in gangs, I'm in boats in Rhode Island.

"I'm in Colorado, you know, I'm sighted all over the place.

"I wanted a hearing the next day! I wanted to be here the next day.

"It's an outrage that I was not allowed to come and immediately defend my name," he tells Democrat Dianne Feinstein.

Feinstein says the schedule is set by Republicans, who control the chamber.