Politics

Mazie Hirono Condemns Callous Colleagues For Wanting Kavanaugh Accuser To Testify Quickly

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Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said her congressional colleagues showed callousness towards Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford, because they want her to testify promptly.

“I think our focus should be that Dr. Ford has come forward courageously and what our committee is to do is — well what do we do about it?” Hirono said on CNN’s “New Day” Wednesday.

“The fact is that she has come forward with information that ought to be investigated by the FBI,” she said. “When Dr. Ford said she would testify, I think she expected a modicum of a fair kind of a situation.”

Ford accused Kavanaugh of groping her at a party in high school and claimed he drunkenly tried to remove her clothing by force.

Hirono said the Senate Judiciary Committee’s invitation to Ford was a display of “callousness” and she was disgusted by her colleagues’ attempt to quickly fit her in to the schedule.

“You know what happened right after she came forward on Sunday? … The committee said, ‘Hey, we want to have a hearing with you, how about this coming Tuesday? If that’s not good, how about Thursday?’ — the callousness with which she was treated,” she said.

“You know for any of us to have dealt at all with the experience of sexual trauma knows that this is a very particularity damaging kind of experience,” she continued. “And you do not treat a person that has gone through this like, ‘Oh, well, hey, how about this?’ You know, I think it’s appalling.”

Hirono said it’s wrong of her colleagues to move forward with the Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation process if Ford isn’t willing to testify in a prompt manner.

“I am totally disappointed that all of these people who have come forward to say, ‘We should hear from her’ — and now that she’s expecting a modicum of fairness so she’s not re-victimized are now saying, ‘Well if she doesn’t want to testify, we should just go ahead.’ That is additional callousness from my colleagues that I am totally appalled by,” she said.

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