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On Fox Business Network, Judge Andrew Napolitano was on with Neil Cavuto this afternoon discussing the nomination vote for Brett Kavanaugh in light of Christine Blasey Ford‘s accusation. Cavuto asked Napolitano about the FBI investigating, and whether the GOP should move ahead. The Judge had a little dose of medicine for everyone, saying the FBI can and should investigate, the GOP should not rush a vote, and Dems better not try to dodge a vote.

Cavuto first read the statement from Sen. Chuck Grassley regarding a Monday hearing and his assertion that the FBI does not “make a credibility assessment of any information it recieves with respect to a nominee, nor is it tasked with investigating a matter just because the committee deems it important.” He then asked Napolitano if Grassley is correct.

Napolitano said he has a different view. “There’s an agreement between the FBI and the Senate Judiciary Committee, and whenever the Chair, speaking for the majority, wants a nominee investigated or re investigated, the FBI will do it,” he said. “The president of course can do it with a stroke of a pen.”

“Now, we’re talking about opening up a background check. We’re not talking about a criminal investigation of an event that happened 36 years ago, that would be absurd because there is no statute of limitations still available for any criminal prosecution,” he added. “So the purpose of

the FBI investigation would be as a service to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. ‘We interviewed Dr. Ford for four hours, here’s what she told us. As a result of what she told us, we interviewed this person, that person, that person, and in our opinion, this person is consistent with her, that person is not. Here’s the raw data.’ That’s what they do.”

He pointed out, as Rachel Maddow did on Tuesday night, that this is exactly what happened and the FBI did in the case of Anita Hill.

Cavuto then turned the topic from investigating to the idea of a Monday hearing. First, on whether a hearing addressing the allegations should take place with Kavanaugh if Ford is not there.

“I think it would be unwise and exquisitely unfair to Judge Kavanaugh, for him to answer allegations lobbed in the public domain, through an interview in the Washington Post, that is not the appropriate way to do it,” he said. “He is basically responding to hearsay, what the reporter says, the reporter heard, the complainant tell the reporter.”

“She, Dr. Ford, decided, perhaps reluctantly, that she wanted the world to know information about his qualifications for the court,” he said. “She has the moral duty to present what she says she knows in an appropriate forum, and under our system, that forum is the Senate Judiciary Committee. She can also

present one other person to corroborate what she said. Then Judge Kavanaugh can be respond. He would be unwise to respond to allegations that did not come out of the mouth of the accuser.”

The Judge said an investigation would take about two weeks, whereas the Hill investigation took about a week.

To close the interview, Cavuto asked Napolitano whether Republicans rushing to vote now, prior to the investigation, would “come back to bite them.”

“I think it would. It would be the perception they are mistreating this woman, who might be a victim, unfairly,” he said. “And there will be a taint on Judge Kavanaugh that will never go away until the public actually has the opportunity to hear the two of them. Not at the same time, but the two of them.”

He wrapped up by saying that if Democrats were to try not to vote, that they’d be shirking their duty. “They would seriously demean and reject their constitutional role of advising and consenting, if they don’t vote at all,” he said.

Watch the clip above, courtesy of Fox Business Channel.

[Featured image via screengrab]

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Follow Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) on Twitter

Tags: Brett Kavanaugh, GOP, Judge Napolitano, Neil Cavuto, SCOTUS