A day after the Senate voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Senator Susan Collins and Kellyanne Conway doubled down on their terrible opinions, and in defending themselves, further established that Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Ford and her most skeptical supporters were right: Her pain, in the end, didn’t matter.
Collins, who earlier this week gave a long and condescending speech about why she would vote to confirm incoming Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, went on Face the Nation with John Dickerson to reiterate the decision was incredibly difficult for her to make.
She explains: “There have been out there very difficult decisions but this was a tough one.”
Collins tries to look on the bright side, adding, “The one silver lining that I hope will come from this is that more women will press charges now when they are assaulted.” But Dickerson suggests Ford’s testimony—and the aftermath, i.e. Collins’ vote—could have the opposite effect and discourage women from reporting their assaults.
Collins disagrees—seems offended, even, at the thought. “Well, I certainly don’t believe that’s the case because I think that this has been an awakening for this country. I don’t think most of us had any idea how pervasive the problem of sexual assault is […] that’s why the Me Too movement has been important.”
Conway stood behind Kavanaugh on ABC’s This Week. She pinpointed a disturbing and distressing reality in America, which is that many women sympathize with Kavanaugh, in the face of Ford’s gut-wrenching testimony, because he reminds of them of men they know personally.
“A lot of women, including me, in America, looked up and saw a man who was […] a political character assassination,” she says. “We looked up and saw in him possibly our husbands, our sons, our cousins, our co-workers, our brothers.”
It’s possible, but depressing to consider, that both Collins and Conway are right: More women may decide to press charges against their assailants, and the system and their communities will continue to side with men, even when presented with ample evidence of their wrongdoing.