Image source, EPA

"Our job yesterday was to hear from Dr Ford and hear from Judge Kavanaugh," Republican Senator Lee says.

"We've done that"

"Our job now is to vote. Today we're going to do that."

Whitehouse brings up Clinton and Lewinsky as he calls Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge's letter declining to testify "ridiculous" and "preposterous".

He argues the Republicans would never have let such a witness go in other cases.

"We have done a botch of an investigation," he says.

"Over time, I expect the facts to come out. They have a way of doing that. Cover-ups never last.

"The sand is running through Kavanaugh's hourglass and I pledge whatever I can do to make sure that the truth of his conduct is ultimately determined."

President Trump inadvertently spawned a new and trending hashtag last week when he questioned why Prof Ford did not report her alleged sexual assault by his Supreme Court nominee when it happened 36 years ago.

In one of a series of tweets, external, he said: "I have no doubt. that, if the attack on Dr Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed..."

There was a swift response.

Under the hashtag#WhyIDidntReport, external, thousands of women began recounting why it took them many years to talk about their attacks.

"I was sexually assaulted twice. Once as a teenager. I never filed a police report and it took me 30 years to tell my parents," tweeted actress and activist Alyssa Milano, who attended the hearing yesterday after she was invited by California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

#WhyIDidntReport: The hashtag supporting Christine Blasey Ford

As we reported earlier, a hotline for victims of sexual assault reported a spike on Thursday as Christine Blasey Ford gave her dramatic testimony.

Others shared their stories online and on Friday some are recounting their experiences as the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination, says Daily Beast reporter Sam Stein.

Senator Whitehouse takes on Kavanaugh's calendars in his statement.

He pulls up a print of one day in particular: 1 July, a day when the calendar lists all the boys Ford noted were there at a party, and hints that they were drinking too.

The entry says Kavanaugh went "to Timmy’s for skis w/Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie, Squi." Skis is apparently an abbreviation of brewskis, or beers.

Whitehouse continues: "Spot me this: if you had just sexually assaulted one of those two girls, would you add the girls' names to your calendar? I doubt it. This may, may be powerful corroborating evidence that the assault happened. That it happened that day. And that it happened in that place.

"But with no FBI investigation, we can't tell."

Whitehouse says an investigation is the "least" a sexual assault victim is entitled to.

"The FBI could interview all the attendees not just to obtain simple denials, but to cross-check and see if the stories add up."

Image source, Senate Judiciary Committee

Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse says Kavanaugh would just contribute "to a disaster" and that "his partisan creed" yesterday was "telling".

Whitehouse says he believes Ford.

He says Kavanaugh "dodged and dissembled, ranted and raved, filibustered and prevaricated. I did not find him credible. I don’t believe 'boof' is flatulence. I don’t believe the Devil's Triangle is a drinking game and I don't believe calling yourself a girl's alumnus is being her friend."

He is referring to the nominee's evidence yesterday when he gave perfectly innocent explanations for cryptic entries in his high school yearbook.

Here's more reaction from conservative commentators on the debate around Kavanaugh's nomination and the sexual assault accusations against him.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Christine Blasey Ford:

The images of her speaking - the first glimpse the public at large has had of her besides a few grainy photos - will linger well beyond Thursday's hearing or even Brett Kavanaugh's ultimate professional fate.

Her name, like that of Anita Hill 27 years before her, will be a part of American history, held up by her advocates as a talisman for a troubled time.

Brett Kavanaugh:

Brett Kavanaugh, when his turn to testify arrived, had his work cut out for him.

He was fighting for his professional life. He had to show it. More than that, as he fought to preserve his personal reputation - as a father, as a son and as a husband - he had to feel it.

Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh hearing: What we learned

Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, says the Senate is "failing, badly", not showing respect and dignity.

He says that extends to Mark Judge, Kavanaugh's friend, who Christine Blasey Ford says witnessed her alleged assault.

Judge issued a statement via his attorney last night saying he does not recall the events described by Ford.

Cornyn says: "Our colleagues believe the appropriate course... is to drag Mr Judge into this circus and subject his battle with alcoholism and addition to public investigation and scrutiny and ridicule.

"That is cruel. That is reckless. That is indecent."

Cornyn also believes this is just a "calculated effort" to delay the vote on Kavanaugh.

He says Democrats "obstruct, delay and deny" the nominees the Trump administration has sent to the Senate - in all aspects of the federal government.

GoFundMe pages for Christine Blasey Ford have surpassed their monetary goals.

One has reached $473,622 after setting a $150,000 goal.

Another made $209,987, surpassing a $175,000 goal.

The New York Times, external reports that one of the campaigns raised hundreds of thousands of dollars just during the span of her hearing yesterday.

Image source, Reuter

Did you see Brett Kavanaugh's detailed personal calendar from his high school years?

Or the dispute over the definition of a "Devil's Triangle"?

And was teenage Brett legally drinking beer?

Here are some of the things you may have missed in yesterday's explosive hearing...

Kavanaugh hearing: Five things you may have missed

Image source, Getty Images

Durbin demands an FBI investigation again, reading from a letter sent by the president of the American Bar Association, which is also asking for an FBI inquiry.

"One of these sworn witnesses has stepped forward and said I will submit myself to the FBI, understanding anyone who lies to the FBI is subject to criminal prosecution," Durbin says.

"The other witness evaded that question over and over and over. Judge Kavanaugh knows better."

Durbin is another 'no'.

Image source, Getty Images

Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Demcorat, says he's thought a lot about the word Ford used most in her testimony - helpful.

"Helpful. She wanted to be helpful to this committee and to her nation. I believe her."

Durbin also criticised Republicans for not questioning Ford themselves, letting a female prosecutor do it for them.

"Judge Kavanaugh's opening statement yesterday was filled with raw emotion. Looking at his family and friends gathered to support him, one could not help but feel that this undertaking is deeply personal and there's humanity to reconcile on both sides of the ledger."

"I could feel the intensity of what he's experienced," Durbin says.

"But I could not understand how he could say he bore no ill will to Dr Ford and then call her charges an 'orchestrated political hit'."

Image source, Getty Images

Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia is the only Democrat that Republicans think they may be able to win over when the full Senate votes next week.

President Trump won West Virginia by a whopping 42%.

Manchin's Senate seat is being challenged in November by a Republican, but at the moment, he is leading by nearly 10 points.

Former President George W Bush has spoken to Manchin in an effort to lobby him for a yes vote.

Protests outside the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room are over, reports the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan.

The National Sexual Assault Hotline has seen a huge spike in calls, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (Rainn), which maintains the hotline.

The organisation reports that the number of people helped on Thursday was 201% above average.

Image source, Getty Images

"Everything I know about Judge Kavanaugh screams that this didn't happen," Senator Graham says emphatically.

"So, to my good friends on the other side who are struggling, I think an FBI investigation is going to do nothing. It's not going to tell you any more than we know now. It's just going to keep it going and going and going until he breaks - and he won't. And the next five come forward.

"I'm gonna vote yes, and I'm gonna tell his two daughters that I am proud of your dad. And I really, really believe he's a good man," he adds, a little emotional.

"And I'm going to tell Dr Ford, I'm sorry you had to go through this, too."

"If this is the new standard - the accusation proves itself, and to those who ask questions, you hate women - God help us all.

"If the new standard for the committee is that there's no presumption of anything, that you have to prove why somebody would accuse you, not just say I didn't do it and here's why I didn't do it, but you've got to prove the motives of your accuser - God help us all.

"It's the beginning of a process that will tear this country apart. And if I am chairman next year, if we keep the majority and Senate Grassley moves over - which I hope he doesn't - I will remember this. There's the process before Kavanaugh and the process after Kavanaugh."

Conservative women are sharing pro-Kavanaugh images and quotes on Instagram, with the hashtags: #Kavanaugh, #LindseyGraham, #MAGA, #LiberalismIsAMentalDisorder.

"All I can say about Ms Ford, I feel sorry for her. And I do believe something happened to her, but we don't know when and where.

"I don't believe it was Brett Kavanaugh."

He says that no reasonable prosecutor would pursue the case in a court of law, since there is not enough existing corroborating evidence.

"All I can say is that under any reasonable standard, any concept of the rule of law, this would not go forward," he argues.