‘In one week, they moved on…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) A woman who came forward with allegations that Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax raped her in college is ready to be heard.
Meredith Watson, who was second to emerge with charges of sexual assault against Fairfax, wrote in an opinion piece Monday for The Washington Post that Fairfax should receive a public hearing similar to what then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh underwent last fall.
“I am frustrated by calls for an investigation rather than a public hearing into these matters,” Watson wrote. “Such ‘investigations’ are secret proceedings, out of the public eye, leaving victims vulnerable to selective leaks and smears.”
The Fairfax accusations, along with evidence of racism from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and a subsequent blackface scandal involving state Attorney General Mark Herring, shocked and captivated many. But despite near-universal calls early in the saga for Northam—and later, Fairfax—to resign, the state’s Republican-led legislature, which holds a razor-thin majority, showed little desire to play hardball.
Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook included a picture of individuals—of which he dubiously denied being one—dressed as a KKK member and a person in blackface with a noose around his neck.
But after his refusal to leave, even as it became clear that far-left elements intended to use the scandal as leverage against him, a poll showed an even split between voters over his ouster, with the majority of blacks supporting the governor.
The Fairfax case, meanwhile, bore remarkable similarities to the earlier Kavanaugh one, but with more credible—and acknowledged—evidence.
California college professor Vanessa Tyson‘s initial claims that he had raped her during the 2004 Democratic National Convention drew calls for investigation, while Watson’s coming forward found many saying he should step down.
While maintaining that he respected women and that the encounter was consensual, Fairfax attacked his first accuser in a misogynist, profanity-laced slur shortly after the story broke.
Watson, who said Fairfax assaulted her when the two were students at Duke University, excoriated lawmakers for allowing the outrageous episodes to slip through the cracks of the news cycle.
“Fairfax denied that he raped me, and he denied Tyson’s account as well. And for many in the public, the media and the Virginia General Assembly, that was that,” she said. “In one week, they moved on.”
According to Breitbart, Fairfax has faced some accountability.
He was removed as chairman of the Democratic Lieutenant Governor’s Association and was placed on leave from his law firm pending investigation.