‘Her decision to provide information pertaining to a sexual assault is not a partisan act. It is an act of civic duty…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Offering no further corroborating evidence for the specific episode in question, Sens. Kristin Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, presented a spectacle in political theater Thursday by having alumnae of the all-girls Holton-Arms school present a letter supporting the accusations of Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“Dr. Blasey Ford’s experience is all too consistent with stories we heard and lived while attending Holton. Many of us are survivors ourselves,” said the letter, signed by 1,039 former students, according to their website.
Ford has accused Kavanaugh of pinning her down at a high school party and drunkenly groping her through her clothes and bathing suit while he was a student at the nearby all-boys Georgetown Preparatory.
Many of Kavanaugh’s classmates, along with female co-workers and others, have issued public statements supporting the judge’s character and have denied any awareness of Ford’s accusations. Kavanaugh himself has strongly denied that the incident occurred.
Those participating in the press conference repeatedly characterized the rebuttals to the accusations as “unfair.”
“Dr. Blasey Ford has shown that she is beyond credible,” said 2005 Holton-Arms alumna Sarah Burgess at the press conference.
Among the signatories was former “Seinfeld” actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a 1979 alumna and billionaire heiress to a French global merchant, who earlier in the week tweeted her support:
I was class of ‘79 & signed this letter. https://t.co/5ssttu9uzT
— Julia Louis-Dreyfus (@OfficialJLD) September 17, 2018
Echoing the previous efforts to derail a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh prior to the midterm election, which has included heckling from both paid protestors and Democratic senators, the women called on the Judiciary Committee to delay the proceedings.
“[Ford’s 36-year-old accusation] demands a thorough and independent investigation before the Senate can reasonably vote,” the letter said.
Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have rejected the notion of a delay, pointing out that Kavanaugh already had undergone months’ worth of intensive screening, hearings and interviews before Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. dramatically unveiled the presence of the letter last week, which she had been in possession of since July.
Ford, a psychology professor at California’s Palo Alto University, was revealed to have engaged previously in women’s rights protests against President Donald Trump, although according to her own account, she did not reveal the alleged assault on her until a 2012 counseling session.
Nonetheless, in a separate letter, issued by the alumnae from Ford’s class of 1984, the women wrote “that her decision to provide information pertaining to a sexual assault is not a partisan act. It is an act of civic duty…”
The two liberal senators hosting the press event already had been vocal in expressing their belief in Ford’s accusations, despite there having been no formal investigation to substantiate that belief.
Hirono turned heads with an inflammatory statement on Wednesday, calling on men everywhere to stop questioning the accusations.
“Guess who is perpetrating all of these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country,” she said. “I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change.”
One former classmate of Ford’s, Cristina King Miranda, was forced to backpedal Wednesday on claims that the incident was common knowledge among Holton-Arms students after inconsistencies between her account and Ford’s were pointed out.