Sen. Jeff Flake announced on Friday morning that he would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, who’s been accused by three women of sexual misconduct, to the Supreme Court — and faced immediate backlash from protesters, some of whom were survivors of sexual violence.
Minutes before the Senate Judiciary Committee met on Friday morning to vote on the nominee, Flake and an aide were cornered in a Senate elevator by several women.
“I told the story of my sexual assault. I told it because I recognized in Dr. Ford’s story that she is telling the truth,” one woman said, referring to Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before the committee on Thursday about her allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980s when they were in high school.
“What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court,” the protester said. “This is not tolerable.”
She added: “I have two children. I cannot imagine that for the next 50 years they will have to have someone in the Supreme Court who has been accused of violating a young girl. What are you doing, sir?”
Flake, who had been seen as a possible swing vote in the confirmation, nodded and said he needed to get to the vote.
“You’re telling all women that they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you’re going to ignore them,” said another protester who was close to tears.
“That’s what you’re telling me when you vote for him,” she added. “Don’t look away from me.”
Another protester said, “You have power when so many women are powerless.”
Flake released a statement on Friday morning explaining his vote.
“After hearing more than 30 hours of testimony from Judge Kavanaugh earlier this month, I was prepared to support his nomination based on his view of the law and his record as a judge,” he said.
Flake described Ford’s testimony as “compelling” and Kavanaugh’s subsequent testimony denying the allegation as “persuasive,” but he said he would never know for sure which person is telling the truth. Flake never called for an FBI investigation.
“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,” Flake said.
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