CORDOVA, Tenn. — Rep. Marsha Blackburn said the “#MeToo” movement empowering women to report sexual misconduct is a positive development but argued Democratic efforts to use flimsy allegations to block Brett Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court could undermine progress.
Christine Blasey Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago when both were in high school in suburban Washington, D.C., lacks credibility, Blackburn, the Republican Senate nominee in Tennessee, said Wednesday during an interview with the Washington Examiner in suburban Memphis. The congresswoman dismissed criticism of President Trump for mocking Ford during a campaign rally, blaming the Democrats’ handling of the issue for any setbacks to “#MeToo.”
“There’s no doubt that something traumatic happened to [Ford] at some point and that it has influenced her life and that she has carried that anxiety that comes from that. I have no doubt about that,” Blackburn said. “The issue for me is, since there is no specificity on date, time, and place, since there is no one — no one — to corroborate her story, then why would this [be] assigned, without any corroborating evidence, assigned to Brett Kavanaugh?”
“More than the president’s comments,” Blackburn added. “What I hear from my friends that have been involved in the ‘#MeToo’ movement — they feel that the way the Democrats used Christine Blasey Ford, and the way the allegations were carried out without the specifics, that that is what has been most hurtful to the ‘#MeToo’ movement by people that have suffered or have had difficulty.”
Blackburn, 66, is battling former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. The race is close, perhaps surprisingly so given the strong support Trump enjoys in this red state. Remembered fondly for a tenure as governor marked by centrism, if Bredesen were to win, it would probably be because the 74-year-old outflanked the congresswoman in the suburbs of Memphis and Nashville, especially with women voters, where she has encountered resistance.
Blackburn isn’t taking anything for granted. She is reaffirming her support “#MeToo” and moving aggressively to put Bredesen on the defensive.
“My opponent has had difficulty with members of his staff during his term of governor,” Blackburn said, charging Bredesen with condoning sexual harassment and brushing it under the rug during his time in the executive mansion. “With sexual harassment claims, there seems to be two tracks where these were covered: If you were a friend of Phil, they were handled privately and documents were shredded. And if you were not, they went through a different process.”
“A direct quote from [Bredesen] was, well, this is just what happens when you have men and women together in the workplace, you have these issues. And that’s an insult to women,” she continued. Regarding the good that has come from the “#MeToo” movement, Blackburn said: “Our daughters and our granddaughters are going to feel empowered to stand up and say to a human resources director or to someone, look: ‘I want to report this.’ And, they know that they’re going to be listened to when they report it.”
The Bredesen campaign, responding after this story was initially posted, disputed Blackburn’s comments. A Bredesen spokeswoman forwarded to the Washington Examiner a document with a point-by-point explanation of how the former governor handled sexual harassment claims, plus a remarks he made addressing the issue during his debate with the congresswoman on Sept. 25.
“I have a zero tolerance policy and have always had on this — we encouraged people to come forward and I’m glad that the number of reported cases where people came forward increased in that process. The issue that she’s referring to was an issue of trying to protect these women so that when they talked to somebody about their experiences, there was not the freedom to put it on the front page of the newspaper the next morning. We’re trying to protect people and trying to get them to come forward,” Bredesen said.
Kavanaugh was nominated by Trump to succeed Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, and could receive a floor vote this week after multiple delays. Blackburn supports his confirmation; Bredesen has declined to issue a position.
Senate Democrats and liberal groups are hoping to use multiple uncorroborated allegations of sexual misconduct to kill Kavanaugh’s nomination. At the very least, they have succeeded in forcing Senate Republicans to delay the confirmation vote — first to allow Kavanaugh and Ford to testify before the Judiciary Committee, then so the FBI could re-open his background check and interview individuals who might shed light on the accusations.
Meanwhile, Kavanaugh became a top issue in battlegrounds that could determine Senate control in the midterm elections, with the scales tilted, for now, in the Republicans’ favor. Democrats are defending seats in several red states, and there are signs that GOP anger over the Left’s tactics is boosting voter enthusiasm on the Right, eliminating what had been a crucial advantage.
Blackburn, during a luncheon Wednesday in Memphis hosted by Tennessee Taskforce 45, a pro-Trump grassroots organization, said the president’s #MAGA rally in Johnson City, in east Tennessee, on Monday received around 98,000 RSVPs, which she said Trump campaign officials told her was the highest ever for one of his signature rallies.
“I think that the Kavanaugh [issue] is going to get the base out stronger than we ever thought,” Elaine S. Ervin, president of Tennessee Taskforce 45, said. “It’s fired ’em up.”
UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a response from the Bredesen campaign.
