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Book excerpt: “One Way Back” by Christine Blasey Ford
St. Martin’s Press
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In September 2018, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, and a mother of two, alleged that Brett Kavanaugh, who was then a nominee for a Supreme Court seat, had sexually assaulted her in the summer of 1982 when she was 15 and he was 17. Her testimony during his confirmation hearings, watched by nearly 10 million cable viewers, drew strong reactions in the context of the #MeToo movement.
In her new memoir, “One Way Back” (published March 19 by St. Martin’s Press), Blasey Ford writes about the responses she received, from support by survivors of sexual assault, to death threats directed at her and her family.
Read an excerpt below, and don’t miss Tracy Smith’s interview with Christine Blasey Ford on “CBS News Sunday Morning” March 17!
“One Way Back” by Christine Blasey Ford
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Most memoirs are the story of a life. This is the life behind a story.
The story happened in the summer and fall of 2018, starting on the beach in the hippie surfer town of Santa Cruz, California, and ending in Washington, D.C., with me testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Or so I thought.
As a shy person who loathes public speaking, I had tried to avoid going public. As a mom, I had worried about the effects it would have on my children. But as a scientist, I knew I had relevant data that needed to be shared. As a patriotic citizen and someone born and raised on the outskirts of our nation’s capital, I saw it as my civic duty, a responsibility to my country to participate in the institutions I had always loved and respected. And as a surfer, I knew I’d already paddled out and there was only one way I was going to get back to shore.
Let me be clear: This is not a political book. Nor is it a manual for victims of sexual assault—there’s certainly no handbook that could ever cover what it takes to hold power to account.
I have lessons I learned the hard way, things I wish I’d done differently. I wish I’d known what I needed to do to push the information beyond the closed doors it was kept behind, while maintaining my safety. I wish I had been able to shield my family and friends more from the blowback.
I didn’t realize that the testimony would be my only chance to share the data I had.
I wish I’d known there would not be a gradual step into the public eye, one that I could navigate on my own terms. I had lived a relatively quiet life as a mom, professor, and surfer. Quite literally overnight, I became a headline news item. With little preparation, my name would be forever encompassed by one image—me in a navy-blue suit I would never normally wear, being sworn in to solemnly tell the truth. That image told one part of the story. But a more accurate image of the person and the life that had led up to that moment would be me jumping off a rock into the ocean. Just Christine.
I had never even gone by “Christine Blasey Ford.” I’d always used Dr. Blasey at work (or simply Blasey to my colleagues), and when I’d gotten married, I haphazardly changed my name to Ford on some things (Social Security) but not others (driver’s license). Old friends from back East called me Chrissy. My identity was fractured, dependent on the setting. Suddenly though, it was decided for me. Without signing up for the job but wholeheartedly agreeing with the cause, I was ushered into the #MeToo movement and heralded as a symbol of the importance of believing women, all the while still grappling with my own experience and relation to sexual assault. I didn’t take the enormity of the responsibility lightly, nor did I have control over it. It took on a life of its own. One thing was clear: Chrissy was gone. Going forward, I would be known around the world by this three-part label: Christine Blasey Ford.
But I was never really known. I was scrutinized, yes. Profiled, sure. Everyone seemed to have an opinion about me. But almost no one knew the real person behind the headlines, the frequently passed-around quote “indelible in the hippocampus.”
From “One Way Back: A Memoir” by Christine Blasey Ford. Copyright © 2024 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press.
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CBS News
Rep. Mike Turner says all “candidates need to deescalate” after Trump assassination attempts
Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, responded Sunday to Eric Trump’s implication that his father’s Democratic opponents were responsible for the attempts on former President Trump’s life, saying the innuendo was “of course” inaccurate but political candidates on both sides of the aisle “need to deescalate” their rhetoric.
“No, of course not,” Turner said in his latest appearance on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” after being asked whether he believes there was truth to claims made by the former president, his son Eric, and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, at a rally where each either implied or suggested Democrats tried to kill him.
Trump returned Saturday to Butler, Pennsylvania, to speak to supporters gathered at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds, the site of the July 13 assassination attempt against him. A gunman facing Trump on the podium at that rally opened fire into the crowd, grazing Trump’s ear, killing one attendee and injuring two others, according to authorities. The gunman was killed by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.
Another apparent assassination attempt happened in September when a suspect pointed a gun in Trump’s direction on the Florida course where he was playing golf. The FBI has opened probes into both incidents.
CBS News
Trump, his son and Vance all acknowledged the assassination attempt in Butler at Saturday’s campaign event.
“Over the past eight years, those who want to stop us from achieving this future have slandered me impeached me indicted me tried to throw me off the ballot and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill me,” said the former president, while Eric Trump claimed his father’s political opponents “tried to kill him, and it’s because the Democratic party, they can’t do anything right.”
Vance, in his remarks, addressed Trump’s Democratic challenger in the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, and suggested that the Republican nominee “took a bullet for democracy.”
Brennan asked Turner: “You don’t mean to imply here anything that would suggest Eric Trump’s allegations that Democrats are trying to kill him?”
“No, of course not,” Turner responded. “But I do think that Vice President Harris needs to actively state and acknowledge that her administration is saying a foreign power, which would be an act of war, is actively trying to kill her opponent.”
The attempts on Trump’s life came after a citizen of Pakistan with ties to Iran was arrested and charged with allegedly planning a murder-for-hire scheme targeting Trump, among others. Although the timing of the charges coincided with the first attempt, there was no indication that the two incidents were related.
Turner criticized Harris for what he viewed as a failure to openly condemn the alleged plot.
“I think there’s certainly a role for her to play and for the president to play in this, in both identifying that there are threats against Donald Trump that need to be acknowledged and responded to, to deter,” he said. “I think all the candidates need to de-escalate, certainly in their language.”
But the congressman did acknowledge that a Biden-Harris Justice Department official, Matthew Olsen, the head of the national security division, said the U.S. government has been “intensely tracking Iranian lethal plotting efforts targeting former and current U.S. government officials — and that includes the former president.”
“I would say that we are very concerned — gravely concerned — about Iranian plotting,” Olsen told CBS News in a recent interview.
Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified into a Category 1 storm on Sunday, and it has set its path on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Forecasters predict Milton will make landfall around the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday, bringing with it upwards of 120 mph winds and drenching an area still reeling from Hurricane Helene.
As of 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, Milton was centered about 290 miles west-northwest of Progreso, Mexico, and about 815 miles west-southwest of Tampa. It had maximum sustained winds of nearly 80 mph and was inching north-northeast at 6 mph.
Path of Hurricane Milton
A map from the National Hurricane Center shows Milton continuing to strengthen into a major hurricane as it approaches Florida’s western coast.
“Milton is forecast to rapidly intensify during the next couple of days and become a major hurricane on Monday,” forecasters said.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
The storm is expected to remain north of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, with heavy rainfall expected as Milton makes its way northeast toward Florida. Tropical storm watches are currently in effect from Celestun to Cancún, Mexico.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
The hurricane center said hurricane and storm surge watches could be issued for parts of Florida later Sunday.
Florida officials prepare for more impact
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that while it remains to be seen just where Milton will strike, it’s clear that Florida is going to be hit hard. “I don’t think there’s any scenario where we don’t have major impacts at this point,” he said.
“You have time to prepare — all day today, all day Monday, probably all day Tuesday to be sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place,” the governor said. “If you’re on that west coast of Florida, barrier islands, just assume you’ll be asked to leave.”
NOAA via AP
DeSantis expanded his state of emergency declaration Sunday to 51 counties and said Floridians should prepare for more power outages and disruptions, making sure they have a week’s worth of food and water and are ready to hit the road.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, coordinated with the governor and briefed President Biden Sunday on how it has staged lifesaving resources.
“I highly encourage you to evacuate” if you’re in an evacuation zone, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “We are preparing … for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017, Hurricane Irma. “
As many as 4,000 National Guard troops are helping state crews to remove debris, DeSantis said.
“All available state assets … are being marshaled to help remove debris,” DeSantis said. “We’re going 24-7 … it’s all hands on deck.”
An American climber was rescued after she and another alpinist from the U.K. were stranded for two days at more than 20,000 feet in the Himalayan mountains.
Michelle Dvorak, 31, and Fay Manners, 37, went missing on Thursday after their equipment and food tumbled down a ravine while trekking up India’s Chaukhamba mountain, CBS News partner BBC reported.
The pair sent an emergency message but search and rescue teams were unable to find them.
INDIAN AIR FORCE/Handout via REUTERS
Manners told the BBC they were “terrified” as they tried to make part of the descent down the treacherous mountains without supplies.
“I watched the bag tumble down the mountain and I immediately knew the consequence of what was to come,” she said. “We had none of our safety equipment left. No tent. No stove to melt snow for water. No warm clothes for the evening.”
The terrifying ordeal intensified when it started to snow. They took cover on a ledge while waiting for rescuers.
“I felt hypothermic, constantly shaking and with the lack of food my body was running out of energy to keep warm,” Manners said.
The rescue was made difficult because of the conditions, including bad weather, fog and high altitude.
“The helicopter flew passed again, couldn’t see us. We were destroyed,” Manners told the BBC.
INDIAN AIR FORCE/Handout via REUTERS
On the second day, the pair began to cautiously abseil down the mountain. They spotted a team of French climbers coming toward them. Manners said they shared their equipment and food and contacted the helicopter company with an exact location.
“I cried with relief knowing we might survive,” she said.
The Indian Air Force said in a post on the X social media platform that their helicopter airlifted the climbers from 17,400 feet after “battling two days of bad weather.”
Chaukhamba is a mountain massif in the Garhwal Himalaya in northern India.
Rep. Mike Turner says all “candidates need to deescalate” after Trump assassination attempts
Maps show track of Hurricane Milton as forecasters predict landfall in Florida this week
American and U.K. climbers rescued after 2 days stranded on Himalayan mountains in India
Rep. Mike Turner says all “candidates need to deescalate” after Trump assassination attempts
Maps show track of Hurricane Milton as forecasters predict landfall in Florida this week