Deborah Ramirez: Senator's actions make me feel like Yale's back



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Deborah Ramirez, the second woman to speak last month accusing Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, issued a scathing statement on Saturday before his confirmation vote.

"Thirty-five years ago, the other students in the room chose to laugh and look on the other side, while Brett Kavanaugh explained sexual violence," Ramirez wrote. accused Kavanaugh of thrusting his penis into his face when they were both students at Yale University.

"Watching many senators speak and vote in the Senate, I feel like I'm back in Yale, where half of the room is laughing and looking at each other," she said. "Only this time, instead of drunken college kids, it's the US senators who deliberately ignore his behavior."

She then thanked the witnesses who had not been interviewed by the FBI as part of her investigation into the charges against Kavanaugh. Ramirez herself was interviewed by the agency along with nine other people, including one of her close friends and two eyewitnesses to the incident. She blamed the FBI for not speaking to all the people she thought could corroborate her story.

"There may be powerful people who look on the other side, but there are millions of others who talk about their personal experiences of sexual violence and take steps to help the survivors." said Ramirez. "It's really a collective moment of survivors and united allies."

Ramirez's complete statement can be read here.

After weeks of uproar, the Senate is expected to vote to confirm Kavanaugh on Saturday afternoon.

Kavanaugh had already completed a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor, publicly accused her. Ford's lawyers issued a scathing statement after it became clear that Republicans had votes to confirm Kavanaugh.

Ford and Kavanaugh were not interviewed in the FBI investigation, although some witnesses to the alleged incident were.

Ford claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party in 1982 and told her story before the committee late last month. In response to the prosecution, Mr. Kavanaugh made an angry and emotional statement accusing the Democrats of concocting a political "hit job". the highest court.

The office of the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), went into the offensive by issuing statements this week to discredit Ford.

To respond directly to his criticism, Kavanaugh published last Thursday an editorial in the Wall Street Journal explaining his behavior. He did not apologize.

On Friday, a handful of substitute senators revealed their intention to vote. Senator Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), whose charges regarding Kavanaugh's charges sparked the FBI's investigation, said he would support the judge. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) joins him, alongside Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), a Red Democrat who is due to be re-elected in November.

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will be the only member of her party to oppose the candidate.

Protesters crisscross senators' offices all week, lead songs, hold placards, and share stories – or attempt to – with their own sexual assaults with elected officials.

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