Sen.
Jeff Flake on Friday declared that Christine Blasey Ford is either a
liar or so addle-brained that she doesn’t know who pinned her to a bed,
groping and grinding away as his buddy looked on laughing.
Flake was the first senator to say he was wanted to hear from the woman who says Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually attacked her when the two were teens.
"If they push forward without any attempt with hearing what she's had to say, I'm not comfortable voting yes," Flake said last week, shortly after Ford came forward. "We need to hear from her. And I don't think I'm alone in this.”
Compelling, but not deal-killing, testimony
Flake was the senator who earlier this week delivered an impassioned speech, defending her right to speak.
“I
do not believe that a claim of sexual assault is invalid because a
15-year-old girl didn’t promptly report the assault to the authorities,
as the President of the United States said just two days ago. How
uninformed and uncaring do you have to be to say things like that, much
less believe them? Do we have any idea what kind of message that sends,
especially to young women? How many times do we have to marginalize and
ignore women before we learn that important lesson?”
Now, having listened to Ford’s testimony, Flake
on Friday announced that he’ll be voting to hand Kavanaugh a lifetime
appointment to one of the nation’s most powerful positions.
“We
heard compelling testimony from Dr. Ford, as well as a persuasive
response from Judge Kavanaugh," he said."I wish that I could express the
confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either
did or did not happen in the early 1980s, but I left the hearing
yesterday with as much doubt as certainty.
“What I
do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence
to the accused, absent corroborating evidence. That is what binds us to
the rule of law.”
This is what investigations are for
Our system of justice does, indeed, afford a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
That’s what investigations are for.
Or, in this case, not.
Flake,
in announcing that he’ll vote yes to confirm Kavanaugh, just issued a
big ol’ shove to women across the country who until recently suffered in
silence – the ones who thought #MeToo meant finally that things were
changing. The ones who finally stood up for themselves.
And just got knocked down, dismissed.
Flake has no idea who is telling the truth here. Neither do I. Neither do you.
But
apparently, he has no interest in finding out whether Ford – and two
other women who have now come forward – are telling the truth.
Me?
I’m wondering what the purpose was in hearing from Ford at all if
Flake never had any real interest in checking out her story?
In
voting to hand Brett Kavanaugh a seat on the United States Supreme
Court without a serious investigation into what happened here, Flake is
saying that Christine Blasey Ford is either a pathological liar or an
idiot.
Or worse, he believes her and it Just. Doesn’t. Matter.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.
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