I’d taken to calling Brett Kavanaugh a “doughy misogynist” because of his stances and general vibe of “hatred of women” and “loathing of women’s rights.” There is no doubt in my mind that if Kavanaugh becomes a Supreme Court justice, he will turn back the clock on any number of vital issues concerning women, from abortion to birth control to our attempts at fair and equitable pay. But what I didn’t know until Friday was that his loathing of women extended to a deep, visceral, violent hatred on a personal level, and that he was exactly the kind of man who would assault and try to rape a woman.
On Friday, Ronan Farrow published an article about Kavanaugh’s attempted rape of a woman/girl when they were both high-school aged. The victim had written a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who referred the matter to the FBI. Feinstein could have handled this better, and she could have told the rest of the Senate Judiciary committee about the letter, but Feinstein claimed that the victim wanted her identity hidden, so Feinstein was trying to do right by her. In any case, the news obviously leaked out. So now the woman has come forward to tell her story in the Washington Post. Her name is Christine Blasey Ford and she’s a professor in California.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend — both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges — corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County.
While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth.
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” said Ford, now a 51-year-old research psychologist in northern California. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”
Ford said she was able to escape when Kavanaugh’s friend and classmate at Georgetown Preparatory School, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them, sending all three tumbling. She said she ran from the room, briefly locked herself in a bathroom and then fled the house.
I believe Ms. Ford. I’m not going to get into all of the dumbass denials being issued by Republicans and such, because they insult me and they insult the American people’s intelligence. If you need a list of women you haven’t tried to rape as a way to “exonerate” you, you’re a terrible person.
The Kavanaugh vote is still scheduled for Thursday. A few Republican senators are making some noise about at least DELAYING the vote to see if Christine Blasey Ford would come and testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
(Also, not for nothing, but I’d still like answers on Kavanaugh’s finances and whether he has a gambling problem too.)
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Well, boys will be boys, said the rapey fascists.
Exactly. She should have been flattered. He must think she’s pretty.
@MC
“….he must think she’s pretty…”
Not necessarily. Just ask Trump.
If this MF gets confirmed I don’t know what I am going to do. November can’t come soon enough. Please register to vote and go and vote!!
Well, the other MF (Thomas) got confirmed even after Anita HIll’s credible testimony. The fact is that Republicans don’t care. They will hem and haw and postpone it, but in the end, they will confirm him and our rights will be stripped away.
Thomas did get confirmed, he’s just a bench warmer. The Anetha Hill’s scandal was a different time in the country. Now with the “We To Movement” I can’t see how they can confirmed this “little squirrel” to a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the land. Thomas is just on the bench to vote whatever the republicans want, he is tainted with the scandal for the rest of his life.
Yes, I believe Ms Ford.
I’ve been thinking a lot about a “continuum of entitlement,” whether to women’s bodies, space, ideas, even now our forgiveness…the whole sexist agenda of power and privilege. We get tangled in debates about what’s legal, or not, what’s just flirtation, or drunken boys will be boys nonsense, what’s passed the statute of limitations or not, on and on. Rules written by and for white men. When really it’s all on that same continuum. In this, I really think many of these leaders (men and women) just don’t see this type of assault as a problem. And I hate when headlines reduce things like this to “sexual misconduct.”
That was 27 years ago and my political awakening. I feel as if I am in a time warp. Orrin Hatch was on the committee then too! The same old white dudes. I was so depressed yesterday. Man I did this already. 27 years later we are on the same place? What the hell did I fight and march and write letters, my god, go door to door for?
Waiting for the rage. Going to have to kick these old white man asses again. Well, I’ll do it. But this time it better take, and people better get out and vote EVERY YEAR, not one year, EVERY YEAR, like i have! Because if they don’t, these same dudes will be back. They’re like vampires.
If? Republicans are scum, they will100% pass him through as is. Unless something really explosive comes out, like actual charges, which isn’t going to happen.
Chuck G and the rest of the republicans were working very hard to keep Brett’s paper trail out of the hands of the democrats, so I figured that it was because he had a similar past of attacking girls just like Roy Moore.
I’m demanding Grassley’s resignation. That list he compiled is a deliberate insult to every victim of sexual assault and makes me wonder what’s in Grassley’s past.
Grassley has been an incompetent and biased chairman the entire hearing. He is not an attorney and it shows compared to the others on the committee. He is ramming through this nomination.
I bet a certain leader of Russia knows if Grassley has anything to hide…..
What’s the big rush to get this man approved by Thursday. McConnell and Ryan worked against BO nominee for 14 months. He did not even get to an hearing, the Republicans blocked his nomination . I will be so angry 😠 if the Dems let this man be approved. if they have to have a sit-in in congress they have to do this. Also this Kavanaugh man does not have the approval of the majority of the American people, he’s poling about 35%, and not he’s accused of a sexual assault, enough is enough.
The big rush is they want him on the bench for the first Monday in October, which is when the Supremes begin their sessions for the year. They run October through June.
These Republicans who are calling to reschedule the confirmation are fake. At the end of the day, they will still vote party line. If 3-4 of them vote no then hell has really frozen over and the Republicans are scared sh*tless that they will be eviscerated this midterm.
Kavanaugh has already lied under oath and committed perjury. Even if he is confirmed, with a majority Democrat House & Senate, he can be impeached and removed.
With the Metoo era, I can see us succeeding with the removal of Kavanaugh and even Justice Thomas.
Yep! they are waiting for the air to clear and waiting for the next big trump scandal, they will then commence and elect him.
I’m hanging into this with every breath I’ve got
What is this world even?
*opens wine bottle*
I read her account of the attack and it seems exactly like the kind of thing a woman knows is sexual assault but a privileged prep school boy just thinks it is his right and forgets it ever happened because it probably wasn’t a one off. Brock Turner is forever a registered sex offender and this guy is going to the Supreme Court? I don’t know if that means progress or not.
Her lawyer said today that she passed a lie detector test, and that Kavanaugh had stuff on his SM (scrubbed) of getting very drunk during those school days. If Republicans won’t even delay the vote, shame on them, but at this point I don’t think anything can shame them.
We can shame them, vote the lot of them out in six weeks.
Does anyone connected with this administration not have some sort of scandal, crime or bad behaviour in their background? When 45 drained the swamp he must have looked at what was left at the bottom to hire.
Someone in the WH said, paraphrasing, ‘if this is taken seriously no man is safe’..in other words, yeah, we all did it, so what? But keep in mind everyone who voted for whoozit were fine with knowing he had assaulted numerous women. I still don’t understand how any woman who’s lived in the real world could stand with this bunch.
I know I saw that comment. It’s as if Republicans Don’t Know Any Men Who Aren’t Rapists. Try and get your mind around that, right?
I still cannot believe that there isn’t even ONE Republican that wants to be a hero. It doesn’t seem like it’s worth it to me to go down in history as a complicit enabler who allowed our country to be destroyed.
I was thinking the same thing, but then realized they won’t be a hero to the people that matter to them – to their base and their GOP colleagues. They will only be a hero to the “other side”.
And what we think of as a country destroyed, to them is a country “restored” to it’s previous state where only white men had any kind of power.
I think it’s ego. They want to be reelected or go out on their own terms. I know there are many people who despise Trump, but don’t forget there are still quite a number of people who worship him. Yeah they’re mostly older, but I know of plenty of people in their 20s-40s who like Trump (ack).
Or maybe they just all suck and like the policies Trump is putting through.
The GOP is a cult whose desire to stick it to liberals is as great as their lust for money. That is all they care about.
I believe her – I think Feinstein didn’t tell the rest of the committee in an attempt to stop them from burying it as the GOP would have if they had known about it before it became public. Her going public put the kaboosh on them covering it up, even if Prof Ford doesn’t want to face the committee the accusation is out there and he has to answer for it.
There is more dirt on him that am sure will continue to come out until he withdraws his nomination. Where there is smoke there is fire, I don’t believe this is the first time he’s done this.
Farrow really does have some amazing contacts.
Yeah I think this was Feinstein’s strategy — Ford was then prepped and vetted, passed a lie detector, and has gone on record with the Post. If she has just shared this in committee that letter and Ford’s story would never have seen the light of day.
Chuck Grassley was well aware of it.
Yeah, your theory on Feinstein’s actions makes sense. I feel for her, because she’s damned no matter what she did or didn’t do. I have never felt so helpless. The only thing that’s giving me hope right now is Beto O’Rourke’s race. If he can win then we will definitely flip the House.
I don’t live in Texas (pretty far away actually) but I am really following that race. I hope they can get rid of Ted Cruz. I will never ever get tired of seeing Ted Cruz get owned.
I want to give Feinstein a big hug. She handled this perfectly.
This is going to be brutal for Ford going forward. I can’t imagine the amount of personal strength and fortitude she must have to come forward with this and I have absolute respect and admiration for her courage.
Meanwhile, Axios details republicans “hardball strategy” to ram the nomination through since apparently this isn’t enough to get someone bounced anymore and quotes a strategist “”if Democrats sink Kavanaugh “we’ll just bring in someone more conservative.””
Dems need to call their bluff……..anyone more right wing than this would mean they are even more opposed to Roe vs Wade…..good luck getting Susan Murkowski and Susan Collins to vote for him then.
I don’t trust anyone in the GOP at this point, including Collins and Murkowski.
Murkowski has more of a backbone than Collins … Collins has just been so damn weak and disappointing. I live in Maine and her office isn’t even taking calls about Kavanaugh anymore.
I know it’s horrible but I hope that there are other victims who will come forward to support Professor Ford. Prove that this wasn’t a one-off.
One is enough. When this came out, part of me was “but it was so long ago” and the rest of me was “you’re still salty about being groped in eighth grade in front of seven boys by a boy who went on to become a registered sex offender and would absolutely be aghast if he were ever up for any position in which he’d have power over peoples’ lives.”
Grateful to Professor Ford for her courage and integrity in coming forward.
Cannibel,
I think it’s okay if you are still “salty” about being assaulted, I’m sorry that happened to you. Hope that you are doing better now.
Someone I went to high school with tried to r*pe me when we were teens. Thankfully I screamed loud enough to draw attention to us and he ran away. I can say that 20 years later, thanks to updates from social media and other high school friends, this guy is still an entitled jerk. SEXUAL ASSAULT IS NOT A TEENAGE INDISCRETION OR SOME PHASE THAT ALL TEENAGE BOYS GO THROUGH (caps because I can’t believe that’s a defense!)
Sometimes when there are multiple victims who come forward, detractors call it a cash grab or a way to get attention. There’s no way to really win in these situations.
Thanks, @Renee2 – it was decades ago, and I’m so lucky to have been able to build a good life and use that experience as a teachable moment for my now-grown daughters. When, at the age I was, my youngest was the target of an attempted groping in middle school, she cold-cocked the kid and he never touched her again.
I’ve seen my assailant at high school reunions laughing with my female classmates and I can’t even bear to look in their direction, so to imagine having to hear his name nonstop in the news in such glowing terms the way Professor Ford has had to has got to be terribly triggering and I’m so impressed with her for doing what she has done.
@EllieMichelle – I’m sorry you had to go through that and that your assailant seems to have learned nothing.
I know, you don’t want there to be other victims but men don’t seem to take allegations seriously unless at least a dozen more women come forward. One voice can be easily silenced but the power of a choir is hard to shut up. I doubt she’s the only victim. Also disturbing that this happened when he was so young.
Yeah, this isn’t going to delay his confirmation at all. The GOP is still pushing forward and as far as most conservatives are concerned, she’s either lying or they think it was a long time ago and it no longer and matters and that she was probably asking for it anyway.
Any kind of pretense of delaying the vote while this is looked into is just that – pretense. Window dressing to quiet any dissent. They’re not going to just give up when they’re this close to railroading this guy through.
I have a feeling that he probably did this to other girls . Waiting for the next one to come forward. Hopefully she is brave enough to do so.
This was my first thought, too. He’s been in “conservative” circles for decades. Wonder if the other victims are Republican and feel some sort of duty to stay quiet?
A wealthy white GOP political candidate (who wants to control what women can do with their bodies) has a history of sexual violence against women.
Color me shocked.
^^^ Nailed it!
^^^THIS
Right from the start he has repulsed me. First, his claim that drump researched his nomination more thoroughly than president ever before him (shades of disgraced Ronny Jackson). Then Republicans’ insipid stories about what a great coach he was for a girls’ basketball team. (It was strange that he kept the trophy in *his* office–not some place the girls could share. When he refused to shake Fred Guttenberg’s hand. His blank stares when questioned. The questions of gambling and debts suddenly paid off.
I could go on and on about his his disassembling. Everything about this guy screams liar.
Then the allegation of assault came out. And his friend and attempted rape accomplice Mark Judge is a complete scum bag to this day. As a student he wrote in the Georgetown Prep yearbook that every woman should be gonged.
I get that many Republican men hate women and they want to move forward with the nomination. But I don’t understand Susan Collins and her capitulation to these Republican men.
I know there is no “looks like a rapist” appearance that allows women and men to spot and avoid rapists. But he has looked to me like a stereotypical rapist would look (although I must admit that I was wrong about his chosen victims; I thought his victims would skew younger).
I agree and you pretty much covered it. I’d only add that seeing the girls he brought to his hearing really creeped me out, too.
Yes, the optic of those young girls seated in formation behind him was awful. Everything about him reeks of something off about this man.
And their parents were ok with that. Now with this news out, I wonder how many regretted that?
Yup, we knew he was a liar as soon as he made that sycophantic speech when his nomination was announced, and everything that has happened since then has simply further confirmed that he is a lying weasel. Now we have good reason to believe that he is also a misogynist who is willing to sexually attack women if he’s been drinking and thinks he can get away with it. His friendship with this Mark Judge creature speaks volumes as well.
No amount of “mentoring” female clerks and coaching girls’ teams, even if done without preying on the young women involved, makes up for this conduct. And I’ll be astonished if there’s not at least a few more victims in his past. Men don’t do something like this one single time, suffer zero consequences, and never do it again, because the act itself is rooted in fundamental bedrock attitudes towards women and sex.
Someone handed Trump a list of judges who not only swung far right, but believed the president was practically above the law. Kavanaugh was most likely the first name on the list and Trump said, with no research, I’ll nominate this guy (since he couldn’t nominate his homegirl judge Jeannine).
There has to be other women.
Funny how Congress wants hearings on Dr Ford but didn’t say peep about talking to Kavahellnaw when this broke.
Double standard rapey asshats want to protect their own.
Kavanaughty
KavaNO
Just vote Naugh on rapey
IMO, they should have her come to the congress and tell what that man did to her when she was 15 y.o. And he was 17, he knew exactly what he was doing although he may have been drunk. His friend wrote a book saying they always had drinking parties in high school and at times he, the friend who she said was in the room, was so drunk he passed out at times. Also, her story sound very true to me. At 15 I’m sure she must have been embarrass to say anything for many years until she had to in 2012 long before this jerk was nominated.
But what are they doing to do to her when she gets there? I am getting sick thinking about it. We can’t just say she should testify. I am going to go to the capital if she does, this woman needs our backup.
Darla, that’s a great idea. She will need a ton of support.
I agree with everyone else who said there are surely other women. I wish there were a way for us to hold them in our hands and spare them the abuse that would surely follow them when they came forward.
What I have trouble believing is that there was just one woman. It’s never just one victim in my experience.
All of the nightmare of 2016 keep unfolding as rapidly as we expected. Here I am in 2018, and my government is run by rapists and traitors. At this point, I don’t even feel bad about considering leaving the country.
Kavanaugh’s friend, Ryan, thought women should be “struck like gongs.”
https://twitter.com/juddapatow/status/1041566943809953792?s=21
You go Ronan Farrow, credibly exposing one creep at a time. Giving me vintage Woodward/Bernstein vibes.
At this point, I’m surprised when a man HAS NOT raped/sexually assaulted/violated a woman 😐 I know not ALL men are pigs but geez, even men who were once viewed as being “good” (Bill Cosby, for example) have been guilty of treating women like garbage.
When will it end?
200 of the accuser’s classmates have come forward to back her.
63 of the 65 women who backed Kavanaugh no longer do.
Maybe the needle really is moving, just a tiny bit.
The press is reporting that there is going to be an increase in the prices of products to offset the tariffs that the Dotard placed on China. Where has the press been? There has already been an increase in products. The press is failing at their job. They were too busy praising the Dotard for the “great” economy and low unemployment rate(they are either falsifying the numbers or looking at the employment rate in certain businesses, 2 women running for office in Michigan said when the Dotard’s administration reports the numbers they are looking at big businesses and not focusing on businesses like the ones who have been forced to close their doors) to even notice that prices have already increased.
The press has stopped talking about Puerto Rico, the kids separated from their parents, and the recent hurricane. Devin Nunes is at it again, he got the Dotard to release more classified information about Mueller’s case and warrants. After getting Peter Strok fired, Devin’s next target is Bruce Ohr. How much of what the Dotard does can be stopped by just staying on a story and doing follow-up?
If she’s a psychology professor, she has her doctorate. An issue in the academy is how women are very often referred to as Ms. Or Mrs. while male colleagues are usually referred to as Dr. and given the associated respect. it’s a continuation of a misogynistic culture to so easily ignore the work and degrees she has obtained to get to where she is by referring to her as Ms. Ford.