The #SoWhat Movement

It really shouldn’t surprise anyone that Republicans are defending Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee who is accused of sexual assault and attempted rape. They’ve already defended Nazis.

Donald Trump says “Judge Kavanaugh is one of the finest people he’s ever known,” but Trump has known people like Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Stephen Miller, Roy Cohn, Rodrigo Duterte, Recep Erdogan, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un.

Kavanaugh is accused of sexually assaulting and trying to rape Christine Blasey Ford, a research psychologist in Northern California, at a social gather in the 1980s when they were both teenagers. She claims Kavanaugh was holding her down and trying to get her clothes off, covering her mouth, so she couldn’t scream, while one of his friends watched. Kavanaugh claims he didn’t do it, and then claimed he wasn’t even at the party. Ford says she was afraid Kavanaugh would inadvertently kill her.

The friend that Ford says witnessed the incident claims it didn’t happen, but he’s also written a book titled, “Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk.” Kavanaugh’s witness is a guy who has boasted about binge drinking until he blacked out.

One of Kavanaugh’s defenses is a list produced by Republicans of 65 women, who knew the nominee during high school, who say Kavanaugh never sexually assaulted them. Seriously. There are a few weird things about this list. One is, it was revealed shortly after Senator Dianne Feinstein revealed the letter detailing the accusation against him. While Feinstein has been criticized for holding back on the letter, there’s speculation that Republicans were also aware of the accusation and had the list ready just in case.

Another problem with the letter is how did Kavanaugh even know 65 women during his high schooldays since he went to an all-boys Catholic school? Granted, I wasn’t the most popular kid in high school, but it was public and I didn’t know 65 girls. In fact, I still don’t know 65 women. Out of those 65 women vouching for the judge, only two will actually go on the record and publicly defend him.

Also, while it’s good there are 65 girls he didn’t assault, even Jeffrey Dahmer could have produced a list of people he’s known that he didn’t eat.

When asked Monday if he may withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination, Trump said, “what a ridiculous question.” He also said he hasn’t spoken to Kavanaugh since the accusations came out, despite the nominee spending nine hours at the White House Monday (maybe it was for the famous meatloaf). But, we don’t know what will come from the hearings next week. Kavanaugh may come off so poorly that they have no choice but to pull his nomination. Seeing that Trump has wilted on “always deny, deny, deny” and says he’s OK with waiting for the confirmation, and he’s known to throw people under the bus quickly, it may not be a “ridiculous” question.

Republicans, who believed all the accusations against Harvey Weinstein and wanted Al Franken tossed from the Senate for pretending to grope a woman, don’t believe Kavanaugh’s accuser. Senator Orrin Hatch, who is on the Judiciary Committee, says the woman is mistaken and may be “all mixed up.” Hatch was also on the committee in 1991 for Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the Supreme Court, where he defended him against sexually harassing Anita Hill, called her a liar, and later said she owed Thomas an apology.

Republicans also argue that if it did happen, then it was so long ago and while he was a teenager, so it shouldn’t be important now. Would you want to hire a guy suspected of being a rapist while he was in high school thirty years ago? Would you want him setting legal policy? Would you want to give him a lifetime appointment?

Just like in 1991, Republicans are not going to come out of the hearing smelling like roses. Their questioning of Ford next week will likely contribute to the women vote and the blue wave coming in November.

The one thing we definitely will not receive from next week’s hearings is proof. Each of us will believe one or the other. Do I believe her at this point? I do. She’s passed a polygraph, had mentioned it years ago before Kavanaugh was nominated for the Supreme Court, and it wouldn’t make sense for an intelligent person to subject herself to the lifetime of bullying and harassment she’s about to be the beneficiary of from Republicans. Who in the right minds would look at what they did to Anita Hill and say, “I want some of that?”

And, since Brett Kavanaugh is already on the record as a liar, I don’t believe him.

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