Ford’s testimony was very credible, even according to Fox News commentators. That left Kavanaugh and the GOP senators with the following choices: (a) label her a liar in spite of all appearances; (b) change the subject and say, essentially, that neither Ford’s charges nor Kavanaugh’s credibility matter; or (c) hold off on a vote and actually do a real investigation and let the chips fall where they may.
The one they didn’t choose was (c). Kavanaugh went into Trump/Clarence Thomas mode and lashed out at the Democrats, thereby confirming that he is just a political hack, not the nonpartisan figure he implausibly claimed to be, and the senators became accomplices in Trumpian misogyny. No one can plausibly maintain now that Trump’s attitudes towards women are an outlier in the GOP; they are, in fact, the mainstream on the Judiciary Committee.
Will the GOP be punished for it in November? Very possibly.