I’m not going to say that Donald Trump has been surprisingly quiet on Twitter, because that’s not true – he’s been consistently tweeting all week, including some really dumb tweet-quotes from watching Fox News 24-7. But up until today, he has been shockingly restrained on Twitter about the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. So does he not care? Are his staffers keeping him occupied with back issues of Hustler and a Slinky? Axios has the gossip:
A source who has been talking to President Trump throughout the Kavanaugh crisis told Axios that “you have no idea” how hard it has been to keep him from attacking his Supreme Court nominee’s accuser. A White House official said yesterday: “Hopefully he can keep it together until Monday. That’s only, like, another 48 hours right?”
At a rally in Las Vegas last night, Trump praised Kavanaugh and added with rare restraint: “I’m not saying anything about anybody else. … So we gotta let it play out. … I think is everything is going to be just fine.”
Be smart: Kavanaugh’s Republican strategists are holding it together, but are still nervous about the unknowns — and nervous about additional stories. There’s a constant rumor mill that X publication has more female accusers. (Yesterday’s rumor circulating Trumpworld was that it was the WaPo. Over the weekend, the rumor was Ronan Farrow.) Just very feverish.
First of all, I bet you $10 that there is another accuser, and she’s currently debating whether or not she even wants to come forward, especially as she’s seeing what Christine Blasey Ford is going through. To that woman – or those women – I plead with you: please come forward. There is legitimate strength in numbers, and we all have your back. As for what Axios says about Trump’s restraint… he’s like a child, and it won’t last. In fact, the cracks are already there. He tweeted this morning about Kavanaugh and Professor Ford:
Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don’t want to know the answers, they just want to destroy and delay. Facts don’t matter. I go through this with them every single day in D.C.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
She was a 15-year-old child at the time, you absolute monster. And like the many women who Trump has assaulted, this was a time before we were having these kinds of conversations about acquaintance rape, date rape, and what constitutes sexual assault. He has no understanding of how trauma works. Also: if he’s going to claim that there should have been a criminal investigation back then, why can’t there be an FBI investigation right now? This weekend’s tweets are going to be an absolute mess.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.
“I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed ”
Really? REALLY?! F***king idiot.
I know, right? And don’t forget “loving parents.” As if he knows anything about being a loving parent.
He’s just stoking his base with this nonsense. That “Women for Kavanaugh” bus isn’t going to fill itself. Smh
That part had me seeing red. I was too scared and embarrassed to ever report my assault from college and to this day I have not told my parents because, unlike Emperor Orange here, they are actually loving and the news would either 1. destroy them that they weren’t able to prevent it or 2. make them hunt down and murder the guy who did it.
I hate him with the fire of a thousand suns.
I cannot fathom how hurt and disgusted victims must feel right now. The comments and tweets are insulting to every single person who has suffered any form of abuse, be it hours or decades ago.
Words fail me on this subject. The other day I was focusing on the mushroom story, because I just cannot articulate rational thoughts on frat boy judge and his entitled supporters.
I am so angry right now after reading his tweet. I never told anyone at the time and only told my husband and best friend this past year after #metoo. I blamed myself and felt such shame, confusion, and guilt that somehow it was my fault. I didn’t want to think of myself as a victim so pushed it so far down in my memory. It was a hard couple of months coming to terms with what happened and how it affected me. Our president has no empathy. He is a garbage person, a monster.
Impartially investigating allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh opens the door to impartially investigating allegations against Trump. Since Republicans and their deplorables have no intention of holding Trump accountable for anything, they must attack the accuser and excuse the behavior in order to protect Trump.
According to Brandy Lee, Trump’s slide into his own reality is accelerating, which means everyday is one day closer to Trump getting us all killed.
https://www.salon.com/2018/09/21/psychiatrist-bandy-lee-trump-is-getting-worse-i-suspect-he-is-unable-to-tolerate-reality/
This is really getting me down. Seeing so many people excuse, minimize and attack. Sigh.
She was a teen at a party with drinking. Set aside all the shame and fear that comes with admitting you were assaulted. She was also a kid who may have been afraid of getting herself and friends in trouble for the party/drinking. Of course she didn’t report it at the time.
In fact, Ford herself said that she didn’t tell her parents because she didn’t want to get in trouble for being at a party with underage drinking. She reasoned she hadn’t “actually” been raped (she was sexually assaulted, of course, but she was trying to downplay it in her own mind) and so tried to just forget it. It was only in therapy years later that she became conscious of the full impact the event had on her life. Hence the lack of charges and the delay in revealing it.
Anyway, I honestly hope there AREN’T any more victims, but if there are, there’s about 48 hours before their stories won’t have a chance to stop this guy’s nomination.
Besides, what Dr Ford went through is traumatizing and wrong and qualify as assault. But let’s face it, if anyone went to the cops with such a story they’d be told that there isn’t much they could do as it is hard to prove since there aren’t bruises, fluids, etc. (That’s if they wouldn’t laugh and tell the person to come back when they’re « really » raped)
So yeah, that’s why you don’t go to the cops, cuz it’s not worth the pain of having to tell your story to strangers and family. It’s not enough to send anyone to jail (and it’s fine that it’s not), but you certainly don’t deserve a lifetime appointment at SCOTUS, especially if you lie about it and don’t own the mistakes you made as a teenager
And, it was THE EIGHTIES. “Date rape” wasn’t in the lexicon. It was probably a decade before she even named it to herself as attempted gang rape. If she had gone to police, she would have been lectured about drinking at a party with boys and asked what did she expect to happen. DNA testing of rape kits wasn’t an option in the early ’80s — the first conviction for rape with DNA evidence didn’t happen until 1987. (Not that we’re actually managing to test rape kits now, of course.) If people think the system is brutal and unfair and disheartening and traumatizing for sexual assault victims to navigate now, it was an order of magnitude worse back when Dr. Blasey Ford was assaulted.
The concept of date rape emerged in the 1970’s. It was definitely in the lexicon; however, Dr. Ford was not the victim of date rape since she did not have a romantic relationship with Kavanaugh. He grabbed her from behind, forced her onto a bed, and attempted to rape her. While he didn’t break into her home at night, everything else Kavanaugh did fits the only conditions under which Republicans will classify a crime as rape: she was violently assaulted by a man with whom she had no relationship.
Fair enough about it not being “date rape”; “acquaintance rape” would be more accurate. But I can definitely tell you that, as a college student, it wasn’t until roughly 1990 that the term “date rape” permeated my or my friends’ awareness. The concept and the term existed before then, but the nomenclature was not in widespread use at all throughout most of the U.S. I believe Time Magazine did a cover on it in 1992, which was about the time the term was fully established in widespread use as I remember it. And then Katie Roiphe published The Morning After (ugh, barf).
I was in high school when this attack took place and date rape was part of the girls-only sex-ed curriculum. The Time mag article was probably the first time most men learned about date rape because back then women were told not to get raped, while men were not told not to rape.
Awareness of date rape is irrelevant because there is no way the police would have done anything about a white, wealthy teenager of privilege attempting to rape someone. This was around the same time “Preppy Murderer” Robert Chambers damn near got away with killing Jennifer Levin. He was ultimately allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter (he claimed he accidentally killed her during “rough sex”) and was sentenced to just 5 – 15 years.
The movie Pretty in Pink which came out in 1986 has a scene where the rich jerk (James Spader) tries to rape Molly Ringwald but she manages to push him off. While he’s acknowledged to be a rich jerk it is not considered attempted rape in any real way in the movie and no one talks about going to the cops. It encapsulates what the attitude would be about this type of incident at that time.
This makes me want to cry. I can relate to how many of you are feeling. I’ve been there; I am there. I read this Slate article last night, and it helped me understand, more clearly, why this is so upsetting. I hope it might be helpful to you too. Wishing for healing and peace for all of you. A couple of highlights:
“The power to decide when something is “too late” to matter is apparently in the hands of the same people who have the power to set the timetable, and those people do not seem to have a good understanding of trauma…. That women who eventually do report such assaults do not do so in a time frame that is convenient for powerful men says far more about who sets the schedule than who is telling the truth.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/christine-blasey-ford-brett-kavanaugh-accusation-timing.html
The president of the United States, ladies and gentlemen. Openly attacking a private citizen and accusing her of lying about a sexual assault.
And openly claiming to have zero doubts about what a survivor of sexual assault would or would not have done in a given situation… for reals? Because I have no doubts that worse have happened to 15 year olds, 25 year olds, 35 year olds… and these incidents, these crimes and assaults were indeed not reported to the police.
The audacity to go after this woman and presume anything about her has me seeing red.
He’s just ’empathizing’ with a fellow predatory politician, as usual.
“I go through this every day in DC…” when he’s only there half the week tweeting fake news and starting beef. Meanwhile, the other half of the week is spent golfing. Large eye roll from me.
I hope Trump is turning off many who have previously supported him brcause you know there have to be people in his base who have been assaulted. I hope this opens their eyes about him.
and again I ask – How can any woman support this absolute piece of misogynist garbage?!?!
I hate him, I hate his supporters with the fire of a billion suns..and I’m not even American.
Old white man with a history of sexual assault playing the ‘ehydidnt she report it if it was so bad’ card.
Shocker.
Fk him!
And Fk all of these old White male dinosaurs of the GOP
Like Rep. Ralph Norman (R), who joked about this whole situation and thew RBG’s name into it : “Did y’all hear this latest late-breaking news on the Kavanaugh hearings?” Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out saying she was groped by Abraham Lincoln.”
It’s all a joke to them. I was seething reading this last night. Seriously fk ’em all.
Can’t you pixelate that face ? … so we still know who it is, but dont have to look at it.
Projecting much Emperor Mushrooms! Am just surprised he let Stormy’s story about his dick fly without a tweet declaring it the biggest ever known to man.
The tweeting increases just as the “mistaken identity” attacker theory is being called out this morning.
Grabbers gotta defend fellow grabbers, I guess.
Have they given up on the “just roughhousing” theory?
I hadn’t heard that one. Wonder if the days of prepping at the WH involves coming up with “alternative facts”?
How is this piece of sh*t still around? Seriously, with all the crazies out there…how is he still “running” the country? He is the DEVIL.
Does he not frigging understand that so many assaults and rapes go unreported?! My own date rape was not and will not be reported. I was embarrassed and ashamed and I didn’t want to put myself in the line of questioning like “So you willingly went over to his house? And you had had consensual sex before? What made this time different?”
So yep, I very much, so very, very much understand why she probably didn’t rush home to tell her parents and file a police report. F**k Trump.
Does he understand? Yes he does because men like him are very dedicated to making sure they go unreported.
There is a second incident. Remember that signed letter brandished like a talisman? It was originally to rebut a different incident but the victim has yet to come forward. (I don’t blame her.)
F*CK HIM.
My own parents were the ones who told me not to press charges.
HOW THE F*CK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO LIVE IN THIS GODDAMN COUNTRY IF OUR LEADERS MINIMIZE US THIS WAY.
Sassafras, I am sorry for what you’ve endured. I can understand your parents’ advice. Obviously little has changed in decades when it comes to treating victims with respect and understanding.
Thank you. There are 1 million good reasons for women not to come forward, as this past week has shown. I try not to judge myself or my parents for the decisions I made, but for Republicans to say, “if there were no charges, there’s no proof” is such dangerous bullshit.
I called my Republican senators this morning to tell them that women are people and we’re going to be voting, and that the comments coming out of their senior members’ mouths are unbelievable and appalling, and that their party needs to get it together and join the 21st century. I’m so enraged I can’t get to sleep at night.
Thank you!!
Despite the daily reports about Trump unraveling and his end being nigh, I notice he’s still the President. Ugh.
The old boys club so frustrated that people no longer believe their lies and gaslighting tricks. I have no doubt that drump and his WH coordinated and concocted with Ed Whelan the alternative universe theory about the assault. Whelan has now apologized for it but hasn’t deleted the tweet.
The FBI must do an investigation. Kavanaugh looks and acts guilty as hell. I believe Dr. Ford.
I had an extremely scary experience in a parking garage a few years ago that could have turned into sexual assault or worse very very quickly. I listened to my gut (my mind was literally screaming get out of here NOW, do it, NOW) and got out of that place at exactly the right time. I immediately reported it to the parking garage attendant and all of my managers. A police report wasnt filed because I didnt really see a point for that but I did what needed to be done to inform people.
BUT, I was in my late 20s when that happened and not a 15 year old girl. I couldnt even believe what I had experienced and quite honestly just didnt want to think about it anymore. The only reason I said anything was because this happened outside of my job and there were already known safety concerns for that parking garage. If I hadn’t thought about how something similar could happen to one of my colleagues, I probably wouldnt have said anything to anyone at all. I think the more traumatric an experience, the less likely you are to right away or at all.
Imagine a 15 year old girl experiencing sexual assault and this traumatizing experience…SMH, how can anyone expect a child to report it to the authorities.
The Orange sh*thead is busy trying to intimidate Dr. Ford. IF this happened, he said, wouldn’t an incident this serious have a police report? Being an experienced predator himself, he knows that most victims don’t say anything st the time! Hate him! May God, her family, the Dems, and the women’s groups who are organizing, give Dr. Ford the support she needs to testify on Monday.
Nobody calls the FBI at 15, but a 72 year old man should.
And if Brett Kavanaugh is innocent he should have no objection to an investigation.
But we have two bullies who will do anything to win… which is disgusting.
He such a complete douche bag. I was raped when I was 12. I didn’t tell my parents about it or anyone else about it until I was in my 30s. I certainly never called the cops. I was kid and I had no idea what to do and I was too young to know that it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t even stop to think that I had options. I just moved on and lived my life. It’s ridiculous to me that emperor baby fists and everybody else in the Republican arena making commentary on this feels like they can speak with no knowledge of psychology or sociology. Women’s reactions to rape and sexual assault are well documented. The idea that there was no police report filed or that a victim told no one means that it never happened is completely ridiculous. It’s a complete and total assault on women. It’s belittling. And it’s also gaslighting.
I’m sorry that you were raped at 12. Thank you for your bravery in adding your voice on this thread.
I wish there were an anonymous online repository where every woman who was raped/assaulted/abused could tell her story and what she did afterwards. I’m guessing that in 90% of the cases, the answer is ‘nothing’ for the reasons that keep being repeated right here in these comments. Why set yourself up to be dismissed at best, blamed and vilified at worst? Why add to the pain? Maybe hundreds-thousands of first-hand accounts could get these dumbasses to recognize the pattern.
Every day, this disease of a president reinforces my choice to vote straight Democrat right down the line in the mid-terms.
I’ve never told anyone about the assault & near-rape I experienced at 17, from a former classmate. I was ashamed & embarrassed as the evidence of his ardor was all over my clothing. I’d had no alcohol and was dressed very conservatively. I was terrified that if my very strict parents found out that I’d be blamed & punished, that my mother would accuse me of inviting it somehow, that my occasionally violent father would confront the boy, that I’d be grounded forever, all my classmates would “find out,” etc.
For fear of seeing the attacker, I didn’t go to any class reunions for 35 years & was still afraid that he might be there. (He wasn’t.) He was one of the popular jocks & I was the shy brain.
It still gives me chills & I was 2 years older than Mrs. Ford. I can well understand why she didn’t tell anyone at the time.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m sure you know now that it wasn’t your fault in any way, but you must have been so scared and humiliated at the time. Knowing your parents won’t have your back in the way you need is horrible and demoralizing, and more the norm than the exception for victims of abuse. Sending (respectful!) Internet hugs.
I was molested at age 5-6. I told NOBODY until I was 25. Even now it’s painful to talk or think about. Even my husband knows something happened but doesn’t know many details because I just can’t talk about it. Trump is full of shit.
Oh Cate, I am so very sorry. The same thing happened to me. I told my mom at the time, and I remember the intense shame and guilt I felt. I don’t think she really understood what I was telling her— and being a very young child, I wasn’t able to understand it in any way other than that I did something bad and it was my fault. I vaguely remember, over the next several years, being overcome with shame and guilt now and then, and I would pull my mother away because I was “feeling guilty” and needed to cry privately with her. One day she told me to stop feeling guilty and be done with it. I never spoke of it again and the memory sank to the back of my brain. It was always there, exerting the same power over me, but it didn’t come back into focus until about age 29. I told a couple of trusted friends; I told a few therapists (which was excruciating to do BTW). Two of those therapists handled it appallingly, by the way. It’s so hard to know who to trust. I will never tell my mom, because if she realizes what happened and how she should/could have helped me at the time, it would devastate her. I will be never report it to the police because nothing can be done. The man who attacked me died recently, and the town had a lavish funeral and fired off f*cking canons in his honor.
What I wanted to say is this: I hear you and I understand. I know how painful and isolating this trauma is. I for one, I am here for you, even though we are strangers and will probably never talk. Talking is not always the answer. It’s small consolation, but I wanted to try express to you the thing that I myself am desperately seeking to understand: you are not alone. We are not alone.
I was raped at 16 by a stranger. I didn’t tell anyone because I was hitchhiking and thought I’d be blamed for being at fault for that. It was a terrifying experience, and I felt I was this close to being murdered as well. My parents are both dead now, but I never did tell them what happened. I can well understand why women don’t say anything. We internalize it and tell ourselves “if I’d only done this.” It took me years to realize I blamed myself for being stupid instead of that stranger for being a monster.
I was sexually assaulted at 14 years by my brother’s very close friend, who was 19 at the time, someone I’d known for years, and if my mother hadn’t come home while he was forcing me to do things I have no doubt that he would have kept going and taking things even further, forcing me to do even more. He shamed me for things he’d heard I’d done with other boys (some true, some not, but boys my own age at least and consensual). He threatened to tell my family about those things he heard. He told me if I tried to tell anyone about this he’d deny it, and they wouldn’t believe me, me being such a little slut and all. My home life at the time was messy, and I believed him. He was very well liked. My mother adored him. Even my best friend had a crush on him, and I was scared if she knew she’d be mad at ME.
I was 14. I finally told my best friend when we were 18. I told my mom at 21, who of course cried her eyes out at the thought that her daughter felt she had to hide this. I’ve told 5 other people in my life since then. None of them know him personally, nor did I ever share his name with them. He lives just one town over still. I STILL DON’T TALK ABOUT IT. I’m 35, I’m married, and I still have trouble believing that I didn’t somehow do SOMETHING that led him to think it was ok. And the man that did this to me is no one. He is not powerful. He’s just some middle aged guy with a wife and kid supposedly. Luckily my brother and him lost touch years and years ago.
To expect a young girl (or anyone, regardless of age, of course, but I was still a child as was Dr. Ford) to be able to process that experience…it’s so sickening.
Once again, he admits it.
“Facts don’t matter.”
Make Facts Matter Again.
He really doesn’t want to be re-elected. However it’s backfiring because the deplorables love it all so much.
Of course he wants and expects to be re-elected. He cannot see himself as a LOSER. That’s a fate worse than death.
If this happened to his precious Ivanka, he’d be singing a different tune. This man is an absolute piece of scum.
We don’t know what he’s done with her.
Omg. Omg. OMG. I have no words. No nice ones that will go uncensored, anyway.
She could have published it in a very popular expose memoir like your ex-wife did but apparently that’s just useless since they can just be buried with an NDA
I believe her
I was in highschool in the 80’s and one situation where I got a ride home from a church function I almost got raped by the two guys, I got really lucky the second guy wasn’t a complete creep and he told me that I didn’t have to do anything and they’d take me home. The main guy had gotten out of the car to smoke first. He was pissed when he got back in and the nicer guy said they were taking me home.
This was from a church thing , and no I didn’t tell anyone. I was 15
When I was in 8th grade at a school pool party a guy stuck his finger up me, I didn’t tell anyone, it was humiliating.
My boyfriend when I was 16 raped me, we were having a fight and he threw me down on the bed and raped me.
We we’re having sex regularly so even though at the time I knew it was kinda abusive it did sink in til I was older that it was actual rape.
I never told anyone.
I was at work and a guy cornered me alone and grabbed my crotch and breasts, I didn’t say anything, I was 18.
At another job when I was 19, skating rink, the DJ came up behind me, I was playing pinball on my break, he pinned me against it and grinded against me and grabbed my breasts.
This time when I could turn around I punched him.
The manager had seen the whole thing, and told the guy he deserved it. He however didn’t do anything about it and I was worried about my job for a second because he saw ME hit the guy.
This was all typical 80’s and 90’s stuff.
I could go on and on, I can think of at least 5 more work things off the top of my head and the same number of hinky dating things.
I rarely said anything to anyone and certainly never told the authorities or HR or any one in charge. Look what the manager who witnessed that sexual assault did, nothing.
So do I believe her? Yes
I was going to link the book The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker but guess what, it’s on PDF. Women are paid less than men, duh, so yay.
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+gift+of+fear+pdf&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS748US748&oq=the+gift+of+fear&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.11091j1j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
I bet his mushroom style penis looks exactly like his thumb in that first picture above!
I was raped at 16 at gunpoint. I never told anyone for years. The fear that rapists might kill you is beyond terrifying. I’m 63 and I can recall everything about that night. While I don’t want it to define me, it’s had more influence on my life than anything. Children, marriages, joyful events did not change me as much as that night. I’ve never felt safe out at night since. I was hitchhiking, I was so ashamed. Now I’m ashamed that this misogynistic dullard is president. Anyway you slice it it’s messed up.