PresidentDonald Trumpdoesn’t understand why Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser waited nearly four decades to report his alleged sexual assault.
“I think it’s a very sad situation,” said Trump, 72. “He’s an outstanding person and frankly Sean, to see what’s going on is just very, very sad. You say, why didn’t somebody call the FBI 36 years ago? When did this all happen? What’s going on? To take a man like this and besmirch?”
Christine Blasey Fordhas accused Kavanaugh, 53, of pinning her down to a bed, groping her and trying to remove her clothes at a high school party in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation, but Ford — a 51-year-old research psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University — is reportedlynegotiating the terms under which she would testifybefore the Senate Judiciary Committee next week.
“Let her have her say, and let’s see how it all works out,” Trump told Hannity on Thursday, stressing that Senate Democrats shouldn’t delay the vote much longer. “They’ve delayed it a week already, they have to get on with it.”
“I think everything’s going to be just fine,” he later said at the rally.
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The accusers who come forward are often humiliated, re-victimized and blamed for the incident in the process.
“Why suffer through the annihilation if it’s not going to matter?”Ford herself toldThe Washington Post.
Former Vice President Joe Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, when law professor Anita Hill accused then-SCOTUS nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
“It’s important that people understand how hard it is to come forward,” Biden, 75, toldTodayon Friday. “I always say to men who say, ‘Why so hard?’ — how ’bout if you were abused? … Would you want to relive that?”
“So much has changed about how the public understands the pressure on women,” he continued. “[Ford] should not have to go through what Anita Hill went through and the way the right went out with her on national television and questioned her integrity and not just her honesty, but questioned her behavior. That’s just not appropriate. You shouldn’t have to be twice put through the same exact thing. It took her a lot of courage for her to come forward. ”
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Biden has been an outspoken supporter of victims, even writing the Violence Against Women Act. But he was criticized during Hill’s two-day hearings for not shutting down the insulting questions that came Hill’s way — something Biden apologized for onToday.
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Meanwhile, the White House continues to brace for Ford’s testimony.
Ford first wrote a letter about the alleged incident to Sen. Dianne Feinstein in July. Ford has claimed thatKavanaugh “held her down” and “attempted to force himself on her” at a partywhile they were both students in high school. Kavanaugh had been drinking at the time of the incident, she alleged. To drown out the sound of her protests, she claimed that he turned up music in the room they were in.
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” Ford toldThe Washington Post. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”
Kavanaugh has “categorically and unequivocally” denied the woman’s allegations, tellingThe New Yorker, “I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
The White House went on to claim that the letter was merely an “11th-hour attempt to delay” Kavanaugh’s nomination, according to a statement provided to PEOPLE.
source: people.com
