[ad_1]
"Have you heard of that?" Norman, who has represented the 5th congressional district of South Carolina since 2017, said during an election debate, according to The Post and Courier.
"Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out saying that she had been solicited by Abraham Lincoln," he joked about the 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice.
The paper noted that the comment caused a nervous laugh at the scene of the debate. But South Carolina's Democrats quickly criticized the remark as "inappropriate."
Norman's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
"Ralph Norman has just proved that he may be rich but he has no lessons," tweeted Democratic Party President Robertson. "Inappropriate does not describe his remarks."
Former South Carolina Democrat President Jaime Harrison also said that "sexual assault is now a threat to a stupid joke!"
"Disgusting but coming from Norman … waited!" he added.
Norman's Democratic opponent in this year's mid-term elections, Archie Parnell, also criticized the comment in a statement to The Post and Courier.
"My opponent apparently thinks that sexual assault is a joke. This is not the case, "said Parnell. "But I guess that's what we can expect from someone who fired a loaded gun on his own constituents."
Norman sparked controversy earlier this year when he waved a loaded pistol in a meeting with voters to review the dangers of firearms, the newspaper notes.
The paper noted that Parnell, however, did not respond to Norman's comments during the debate.
Norman's comments came at a time when Kavanaugh is facing heightened scrutiny of the allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
Christine Blasey Ford, 51, professor of psychology in Northern California, publicly demonstrated Sunday detailing his allegations against Kavanaugh at the Washington Post.
In the 1980s, Ford accused Kavanaugh of having seriously injured him in a bed during the summer. Ford alleges that she and Kavanaugh "stained" her clothes, rubbing her body against hers and clumsily trying to remove her one-piece swimsuit and the clothes she wore on top of it. "She also alleges that he held his hand over his mouth to stop him from screaming.
Kavanaugh violently denied the charges.
After many Democratic senators have expressed their concerns about a confirmation vote procedure, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) agreed to schedule another hearing for Kavanaugh on Monday. Grassley argued in a letter released Wednesday that the Senate has a constitutional responsibility to investigate information about a candidate and that the role of the FBI is to consider only confidential matters.
Ford has requested that the FBI investigate its allegations before it agrees to testify before the committee.
The Democrats immediately backed Ford's request, which Republicans described as a stall tactic aimed at delaying Kavanaugh's confirmation vote beyond the mid-term elections.
The FBI has not opened a criminal investigation because the prosecution does not include a federal crime. The White House did not order the FBI to reopen Kavanaugh's background investigation and vigorously rejected Ford's charges.
Updated: 15:25
[ad_2]
Source link
