Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), a possible swing vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, drew attention from all sides when he announced a floor speech he’d be making shortly after the third sexual misconduct accusation against Kavanaugh surfaced Wednesday.
However, he just used his time to implore that both Kavanaugh and his first accuser, professor Christine Blasey Ford, be treated with humanity at Thursday’s Senate hearing.
“These witnesses who will testify in a very important hearing tomorrow, these unwitting combatants in an undeclared war, they’re not props for us to make political points nor are they to be demolished like Anita Hill as was said on conservative media the other night,” Flake said. “Nor is one of them a proven sex criminal as has been circulating on the left side of the internet. These are human beings. With families and children.”
Flake also gently rebuked President Donald Trump for asking why Blasey Ford did not contact the FBI at the time that the alleged attack occurred.
“I must also say that separate and apart from this nomination, and the facts that pertain to it, I do not believe that the claim of sexual assault is invalid because a 15-year-old girl didn’t promptly report the assault to authorities as the President of the united States said just two days ago,” he said. “How uninformed and uncaring do we have to be to say things like that, much less believe them?”
Flake stuck to his line that he wouldn’t make up his mind on how he’d vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation until after the hearing tomorrow.
Watch below:
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 26, 2018
