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Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and his accuser faced off Thursday in an extraordinary, emotional day of testimony that ricocheted from a woman’s tremulous account of sexual assault to a man’s angry, outraged denial, all of which played out for hours before a riveted nation and a riven Senate. The two very different versions of the truth, unfolding in the heated atmosphere of gender divides, #MeToo and the Trump presidency, could not be reconciled. The testimony skittered from cringe-worthy sexual details to accusations and denials of drunken debauchery to one juvenile exchange over flatulence. (Stolberg and Fandos, 9/27)

The day began with an emotional punch as a self-described “terrified” Ford, her voice shaking at times, described in stark detail being pinned on a bed by a drunken Kavanaugh at a high school gathering. Hours later, the drama escalated as a seething Kavanaugh faced the Senate Judiciary Committee from the same chair and adamantly denied her charges. “You may defeat me in the final vote, but you’ll never get me to quit. Never,” the red-faced and defiant nominee told Democrats. (Barnes, Kim and Viebeck, 9/27)

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Friday on the nomination. Republican senators said they expected the full chamber would hold its first procedural vote Saturday, and a final vote is expected early next week. (Hook, Peterson and Andrews, 9/27)

Publicly, Republicans do not have the votes yet to confirm Kavanaugh, but GOP leaders seem confident they can push him through with brute force. Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) wouldn’t say whether undecided Republicans would back Kavanaugh. “We’re still talking through all those issues, and I’m optimistic we’ll get to confirmation,” Cornyn said as he left the Capitol. (Everett and Bresnahan, 9/27)

The American Bar Association has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to suspend its consideration of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court until an FBI investigation is completed into multiple sexual assault allegations. (Kiggins, 9/28)

“Can you tell us what impact the events had on you?” Senator Dianne Feinstein asked Christine Blasey Ford during Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. It was the first of several questions aimed at getting Dr. Blasey to outline the toll on her life of a sexual assault that she testified involved Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. Many people who work in the area of trauma found her answers, which included “anxiety, phobia and PTSD-like symptoms,” familiar and credible. But they said it’s important to remember something Dr. Blasey, a research psychologist, drew attention to during her testimony. (Murphy, 9/27)

What Christine Blasey Ford remembers best about that night 30-plus years ago is the laughter. It came, she said, from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge — two high school boys who drunkenly locked her into the bedroom of a friend’s house where she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh. (Healy, 9/28)

In her testimony to a Senate committee, the woman who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers dipped briefly into the mechanics of memory. Experts say she got it pretty much right. When asked Thursday how she could be sure it was Kavanaugh who put a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet, psychologist Christine Blasey Ford cited levels of chemical messengers called norepinephrine and epinephrine in her brain at the time of the alleged attack. (Ritter, 9/27)

Millions of people heard Christine Blasey Ford tell the Senate Judiciary Committee about a long-ago gathering where she said Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, pushed his body against hers, tried to remove her clothes and held his hand over her mouth as she tried to scream for help. The story was difficult to take in, and that’s especially true for victims of sexual assault. (Kaplan and Healy, 9/27)

Dr. Lynn Ponton, a psychiatrist in San Francisco and a professor of psychiatry at UCSF, said she wasn't surprised when she started getting phone calls from clients on Thursday during the Blasey-Kavanaugh hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And she says other Bay Area psychiatrists she's been talking with are also seeing their phones light up. (McEvoy, 9/27)

Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford provided emotional testimony about her allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party when she was 15. Kavanaugh also testified, denying he assaulted Blasey Ford. Experts say the allegations and testimony may be a trigger for survivors dealing with their own trauma. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in three women and one in six men in the United States have experienced a form of contact sexual violence. (Castle, 9/27)