Female Senate Democrats blasted their male Republican counterparts for rushing Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, with a hearing scheduled for next week that will allow Kavanaugh and his sexual assault accuser, California professor Christine Blasey Ford, to testify before the Judiciary Committee.
Ford has yet to agree to appear at the Monday hearing, and Democrats want more witnesses, including Kavanaugh’s high school friend Mark Judge to appear for questioning as well.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., warned that if the Senate repeats the mistakes of the 1991 Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, “women across the country are going to rise up, they are going to make their voices heard, and Republicans are going to pay a huge price.”
[More: GOP looks to avoid Clarence Thomas repeat after new claim against Kavanaugh]
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a potential 2020 contender, who has led the charge on sexual harassment reforms in Congress, said the Senate needs to be careful the message it sends to American women at the upcoming hearing.
“A sham hearing would send a very clear message that women are not valued in this country,” Gillibrand said. “To refuse to treat this properly and try to confirm Judge Kavanaugh at any cost tells women that once again they are not important and they are not to be believed — that you are worth less than a man’s promotion.”
Taking a more aggressive track, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who is one of the four women members of the Judiciary Committee, visibly expressed her frustration.
“I want to say to men of this country: Just shut up and step up, do the right thing,” said Hirono, speaking to reporters at a press conference after the Senate Democrats’ weekly lunch.
Moments later, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and members of Republican leadership, passed by Hirono outside the Senate chamber on their way to their weekly press conference.
Looking right at each other, Hirono paused in the middle of her answer to the Washington Examiner, pointed the papers she was holding right at McConnell, and said, “Do the right thing!”
Cornyn chuckled at the comment as they passed, and Hirono’s staffers were visibly taken aback, but laughed as well. Hirono didn’t skip a beat and continued to answer a question about what Democrats would do if Republicans don’t join them in pushing the FBI to reopen it’s background check on Kavanaugh and investigate the allegations.
“I do that kind of thing all the time,” said Hirono, laughing.
There’s little Democrats can do if the FBI doesn’t investigate, and if Republicans reject Democrats’ calls for more witnesses to testify publicly.
Pressed on Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s decision to hold Ford’s July letter alerting her member of Congress to the alleged assault, Hirono said she stands by the Californian’s actions. Feinstein withheld the letter at the request of Ford that her identity not be disclosed.
“Her motives are pure,” Hirono said. “The decision was made Wednesday to hand this over to the FBI and apparently they’ve done diddly squat, you can quote me on that,” she said.
“The question to me is really not what Dianne Feinstein did but really now what the heck are we going to do that this woman has come forward with these allegations with the credibility behind her and [Kavanaugh] sits there saying is, ‘I didn’t do it,’” Hirono added.
