A DC woman who attended the Brett Kavanaugh hearing on Thursday said in a series of tweets that she was dismissed by Republican senator Lindsey Graham when she tried to tell him that she is a sexual assault survivor.
Activist Robyn Swirling said she approached Graham in the lobby of the Capitol basement after he criticized Christine Blasey Ford for not remembering the exact date she was allegedly assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Swirling, wearing a ‘Trust Women’ t-shirt, told the South Carolina senator that she was raped 13 years ago and doesn’t remember the date, but that doesn’t make her less credible.
‘So would you believe me?’ she asked Graham.
She said he told her: ‘I’m sorry’, but then made an inconsiderate remark as he scurried into the elevator.
Activist Robyn Swirling said she told Senator Lindsey Graham she is the victim of sexual assault and he told her she ‘needed to go to the cops’
Swirling confronted Graham during a break in the testimonies of Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford
‘You needed to go to the cops. Go to the cops,’ Swirling and others accused Graham of telling a rape survivor. Graham is pictured Thursday during Kavanaugh’s testimony
‘You needed to go to the cops. Go to the cops,’ he said in video posted by CNN.
Swirling said Graham’s comment to her was ‘cruel, dismissive and insensitive’.
‘If Graham had paused to talk with me, instead of rushing into the elevator, I’d have told him the cops can’t do anything about it now, but that doesn’t make it any less true and doesn’t make me any less credible,’ she tweeted.
Swirling, who founded the anti-sexual harassment organization Works in Progress, said she stopped by the hearing to confront Graham and other senators and to urge them ‘to care about the experiences of sexual assault survivors and to believe us’.
Before his encounter with Swirling, Graham told reporters that Ford’s testimony was not convincing and her ‘hiring a lawyer and taking a polygraph makes me more suspicious’.
Christine Blasey Ford (left) is pictured during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. She accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh )right) of sexual assault
‘What happened to her, I don’t know. Why don’t you believe (Kavanaugh)? What is it about him you don’t want to believe?’ Graham said, according to the Huffington Post. ‘They’ve tried to destroy this guy’s life with one accusation after another.’
He also seemed to threaten the Democrats future Supreme Court nominees, saying: ‘Let me tell my Democratic friends: If this is the new norm, you’d better watch out for your nominees.’
Ford accused Kavanaugh of attempted rape, telling the Washington Post that he pinned her down on a bed and tried to take her clothes off at a party when they were in high school. She said he covered her mouth when she tried to scream. Ford said there are details she does not remember but believes she was 15 at the time of the alleged attack.
Ford and Kavanaugh testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.