The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority chose a format for Thursday’s hearing on Brett Kavanaugh that gave Democrats the opportunity to ask pointed questions and make lengthy statements while the 11 GOP members remained largely silent.

Reportedly fearful of how the optics of mostly elderly Republican men grilling the victim of an alleged sexual assault would look, they had Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona, ask the questions.

Mitchell began by expressing sympathy for Ford, who’d said she was “terrified” to testify, telling the witness, “I just wanted to let you know, I’m very sorry. That’s not right.”

Mitchell then led Ford through a detailed recollection of the events that she says occurred on the day of the alleged incident.

But under the committee’s procedures, the career prosecutor was limited to five minutes at a time, interspersed between Democrats’ questions, creating a choppy effect as she tried piecing together Ford’s story.

Even Mitchell took a shot at the format in an aside while asking Ford about studies that recommend procedures for questioning sexual assault victims.

“Would you believe me if I told you that there is no study that says that this setting in five-minute increments is the best way to do that?” she asked, prompting some laughter.

“We can stipulate to that,” one of Ford’s lawyers said.

“Thank you, counsel. Agreed,” Mitchell replied.

Social media took notice of the awkwardness.

“The decision to hire Rachel Mitchell to question Christine Blasey Ford is going to go down in history as an incredible blunder by Senate Republicans, and the decision to hold the hearing in this ridiculous 5 minute round format is only going to magnify the effects of the mistake,” tweeted Susan Simpson, a DC lawyer and blogger.

And Rick Romley, the former Maricopa County attorney who hired Mitchell to be a prosecutor in the early 1990s, told the Wall Street Journal that she has been unable to dent Ford’s credibility.

“Her theme is to question her credibility and Dr. Ford is very credible,” said Romley, a Republican who opposes President Trump.

“She should have had a secondary theme because this is not working. This is not a trial which is Rachel’s format and she appears to be a duck out of water.”