The US senate judiciary committee hearing on recommending Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court was delayed Friday after two protesters confronted senator Jeff Flake—an Arizona Republican and the swing vote on the committee—on an elevator for more than five minutes.
“What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable!” one woman said. “You have children in your family—think about them! I have two children. I cannot imagine that for the next 50 years they have to have someone in the Supreme Court accused of violating a young girl. What are you doing sir?”
Flake, who had minutes before announced his intention to approve Kavanaugh, quietly said “Thank you,” and told the women that he needed to go.
“I was sexually assaulted. Nobody believed me,” the second protester said. “You’re telling all women in America 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. That’s what happened to me. … That’s what you’re telling all these women, that’s what you’re telling me, that my sexual assault doesn’t matter. Look at me when I’m talking to you.”