OPINION:
Receiving some news coverage over the past few weeks, but not much, has been the revelation that four people have been referred by the Senate Judiciary Committee for criminal investigation regarding allegedly false statements relating to the Kavanaugh investigation.
This includes a man who said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh raped someone on a boat. That person eventually recanted and apologized. Also referred were attorney Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick who claimed Justice Kavanaugh was the mastermind of gang-rape factories, as well as a woman who also admits she lied when claiming she was raped “several times each” by Brett Kavanaugh and his friend in the back of a car. This, too, was recanted by the accuser with an admission that she did it to “grab attention.”
And yet here we are, after spending weeks with Democratic leadership in the Senate accusing a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court of being a gang rapist, covered 24/7 by media, as we were ordered to dump due process and “believe all women.” Because if we don’t, we are enabling rapists and misogynists everywhere.
What we know, and argued throughout that circus, is if you abandon due process, then the only thing you promote and enable are liars and kangaroo courts. And voila, we now know that’s what we got.
The Democrats told the world that Justice Kavanaugh was a serial gang-rapist mastermind. In high school. And probably also in college. Protests emerged at Harvard to remove him from a teaching post (which succeeded), and some tried to even get him banned from coaching his daughter’s basketball team.
Julie Swetnick, rape-factory accuser, was elevated as a hero by senators such as Kamala Harris, and spoken of as “credible” by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Cory Booker and Mazie Hirono, among other Senate Democrats.
All those champions and protectors of women in the Senate, where are they now? Is Kamala Harris going to pay for Julie Swetnick’s defense costs? Ms. Feinstein and Mr. Booker and Ms. Hirono “believe all women.” Ms. Hirono said it was the responsibility of Justice Kavanaugh to “prove his innocence.” Why aren’t Ms. Hirono, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Sen. Amy Klobuchar engaging in a hunger strike as Kavanaugh accusers face criminal investigation?
If these Democrats were serious about what they were doing, and serious about sexual assault, they would be angry. They would be appalled that people lied; that frauds reversed the impact of what the feminist movement was trying to do for the last 20 years: Arguing for women to be taken seriously on sexual assault and domestic violence. Or, if they still believe everyone, they should be appalled that the brave and true are being falsely accused themselves.
Instead, we have crickets. There’s nothing about #BelieveAllWomen, because it’s not useful anymore. Like sexual assault as an issue, its political value is spent.
The legacy media carried the fraud that Justice Kavanaugh was a gang rapist. Day and night, that was all the U.S. and the world heard. Yet they, too, are silent. Wouldn’t having a rape mastermind on the Supreme Court require more outrage and more investigation?
But no, everyone has run for the hills, which tells us plenty. This silence and abandonment make clear that what we were all subjected to was a political stunt. The Democrats knew what they were doing, they did not care about the impact on women overall, and they still don’t.
And that is the largest fraud facing the American people: The left is not only not champions for women, they use us like cannon fodder, and need our lives to get worse. Otherwise, what horrible allegations would they be able to hurl at innocent political opponents?
While the Democrats have thrown the Kavanaugh debacle into the memory hole, the Senate Judiciary Committee has not. Generally ignored by the legacy media in the midst of the midterm, the committee’s 414-page report on the Justice Kavanaugh sexual assault allegation was released. It details exactly how much of a fraud the Kavanaugh hearing really was, and the seriousness of false charges lodged against him.
In addition to the details of the criminal referrals made to the Justice Department, the report states that there “was no credible evidence to support the allegations” against Justice Kavanaugh. This includes the charges made by California professor Christine Blasey Ford. The report reveals, among other significant details, interviews with two men who believe they were mistaken by Ms. Ford for Brett Kavanaugh as they recounted a consensual act with the accuser.
All of this confirms my argument from the start of this debacle: The Democrats never cared about “the women,” and they see violence against women as a political tool, not something to solve. Their politicizing of our lives diminishes all women, and invited the fraud that is damaging the work that has been done for at least two generations to get women to be taken seriously on issues of sexual and domestic violence.
• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk show host.
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