So the GOP line is Ford got assaulted...just not by Kavanaugh?
No, I think that as of right now the GOP line is that this whole thing is a liberal hit job, totally fabricated for political reasons.
And part of me kind of wishes that was true, because it would look like some kind of justice for the Merrick Garland debacle if it WAS just a purely partisan hit job. They made no bones about scuttling Garland for partisan reasons, after all, so it would be delicious irony if liberals had returned the favor. Sadly, this looks like an actual history of assault against multiple women who want to testify under oath, and nobody willing to defend him under oath, so the odds of it being a "sham" as Lindsey Graham claims are pretty slim.
I still think he'll be confirmed without so much as an investigation into these accusations. They are not legally required to investigate. Republicans have total control of two of the three branches of government, and they will use that control to take control of the third branch tomorrow. Voters have no say. Public opinion doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is McConnell holding together 51 republican senators despite today's testimonies, so he can basically say "We don't care if it's true or not, we're putting him on the SC anyway" and then it will happen, and nobody else can do a damn thing about it.
In the long run, the electoral consequences of that kind of abuse are probably detrimental to the GOP and to the country as a whole, but that's not exactly at the forefront of the thought processes right now.