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The scene was striking: two women blocking a lift door, angrily demanding to be heard by a senator, listening calmly, nodding and looking away.
"On Monday, I was standing in front of your office," said Ana Maria Archila, one of the women, to Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona. "I told the story of my sexual assault."
Flake had just announced his intention to vote on Friday morning to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, despite the moving testimony of the day before Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused Judge Kavanaugh of stealing the money. sexual assault.
The reporters gathered while Mr. Flake was waiting in the elevator, but the two women interrupted and demanded that he listen.
"I have to go, I have to go to the audience," Flake told 39-year-old Archila in the widely shared video of the moment.
Ms. Archila persisted. "I said it because I recognized in Dr. Ford's story that she was telling the truth," she said, her voice shattered. "What you do allows a person who has raped a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think of them.
A few hours later, Senator Flake said: that he would not support the confirmation without a week F.B.I. investigating the allegations, while he joined his Republican colleagues to advance the candidacy. There was much speculation that the meeting with the elevators played a role.
[[[[Watch the full exchange, and scroll down for a full transcript]
Ms Archila, a member of the Working Families Party's national committee and executive director of the New York-based liberal organization group Center for Popular Democracy, said the time had come for a burst of anger. She had spent a week in Washington protesting the appointment of Judge Kavanaugh, she said, and had just read Mr. Flake's decision when she saw him in the Capitol Hall.
Ms. Archila and Maria Gallagher, 23, who had also come to protest the confirmation, ran to block the lifts to which Mr. Flake was heading, she said, and confronted her as she was walking. he entered.
"I wanted him to feel my anger," Archila said in an interview Friday afternoon.
While she was talking to him, Mr. Flake nodded and looked down, his eyes fluttering between her, the floor and the elevator wall – a moment captured live on CNN.
Then Ms. Gallagher spoke.
"I was sexually assaulted and no one believed me," she said. "I did not tell anyone and you tell all women that they do not count."
Later, when she rebuked Mr. Flake for supporting Judge Kavanaugh, Ms. Gallagher sought the attention of the senator.
"Do not look at me," she said. "Look at me and tell me that what has happened does not matter, that you will let people like them enter the highest court in the country and tell everyone. what they can do to their bodies. "
Ms. Gallagher refused to be interviewed, but confirmed many details through a spokesperson.
Ms. Archila stated that when they confronted Mr. Flake, it was one of the first times that one or the other had publicly shared his narrative of his life. sexual assault. Archila, who says she was assaulted at the age of five, said she was shocked to tell her story after seeing Dr. Blasey's testimony.
"When the #MeToo movement broke, I thought to say it – but I wrote things and deleted them and finally decided that I could not say" Me too " Archila said, "But when Dr. Blasey did, I forced myself to rethink it."
Mr. Flake was in court before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday afternoon after the exchange and could not be reached immediately for comment. In the video, you can see him lowering his head while the women tell their story and whisper "Thank you" without answering their questions.
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Ms Archila said "he looked ashamed" and "had a hard time staring at us".
"He knows it's wrong and sends a bad message to my children and his children," Ms. Archila said. "But despite all that, he chooses the party."
The exchange channeled the Liberals' anger over how the Republicans performed the confirmation. Shortly after the women confronted Mr. Flake, several Democrats withdrew from the committee hearing.
"This is only a railroad job," senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat in Hawaii, said before leaving the room.
For every woman, the encounter meant that her family was now aware of an assault that was once a private affair, given the extent of sharing video footage from the exchange.
Archila said her father sent her a message after discovering: "I'm sorry I can not protect you," he said.
"The story of Dr. Ford allowed me to tell this secret to my parents," she said. "I now have to do the work of how I and my parents are dealing with this experience, and I do not know how it will go."
Below you will find the full transcript of the conversation between Mr. Flake, Ms. Archila and Ms. Gallagher, prepared by The New York Times.
____________
PROTESTER: Monday, I stood in front of your office [inaudible]. I have told the story of my sexual assault. I said that because I recognized in Dr. Ford's story that she was telling the truth. What you do is allow a person who has raped a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think of them. I have two children
I can not imagine that, in the next 50 years, they will have to bring to the Supreme Court a person accused of raping a young girl. What is it that you do sir?
ANOTHER PROTEST: I was sexually assaulted and no one believed me. I did not tell anyone, and you told all the women that they did not matter, that they had to be quiet because if they told you what had happened to them, you would ignore them. That's what happened to me, and that's what you're telling all women in America that they do not matter. They should just keep it for themselves because if they told the truth, you're just going to help this man take power anyway.
That's what you say to all these women. That's what you're telling me right now. Look at me when I speak to you. You tell me that my assault does not matter, that what happened to me has not happened to me and that you will let the people who do these things in power. That's what you tell me when you vote for him. Do not look away.
Look at me and tell me that what has happened does not matter, that you will let people like them enter the highest court in the country and tell everyone what they can to do to their bodies.
JOURNALIST: Do you want to respond, Senator Flake?
PROTESTER: Senator Flake, do you think Brett Kavanaugh is telling the truth?
HELP: Thank you.
PROTESTER: Do you think he can bear the pain of this country and repair it? It's the job of justice. Justice works as if you recognize harm, you take responsibility for it, and you begin to repair it. You authorize a person who is unwilling to take responsibility for his own actions and willing to do the harm that he has done to a woman, in fact to three women, and not to repair her. You authorize someone who is not willing to take responsibility for his or her own actions –
REPORTER: Do you want to respond?
PROTEST: – sit at the highest court in the country and have the role of repairing the damage done to this people in many countries.
SENATOR JEFF FLAKE: Thank you.
PROTESTATEUR: No, no thanks. What do you think?
JOURNALIST: Senator, do you care to answer?
HELP: Ma'am, do you want to speak to this staff member here?
PROTESTER: No, I want to talk to him. Do not talk to me. What do you think?
FLAKE: I have to go to the hearing.
PROTESTER: I understand, but tell me. I am standing in front of you.
PROTESTER: What do you have – do you think he's telling the truth?
FLAKE: Thank you. I am going to go to –
PROTESTER: No. Do you think he's telling the truth to the country?
ANOTHER PROTEST: You have the power, but many women are helpless.
FLAKE: Thank you. [Inaudible]
UNKNOWN: Can not you give them an answer, senator?
HELP: We have our press available to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you. You can either enter or exit. Thank you.
PROTESTRE: Saying thank you is not an answer. This concerns the future of our country, sir. You name him for a life term at the Supreme Court –
HELP: We have to go. We call security.
PROTESTATEUR: It's okay. Find security.
[Inaudible]
UNKNOWN: Senator, why not be a hero and vote no?
PROTESTRE: Why now? Why not wait? Why not wait for the investigation? There is no harm –
PROTESTER: How can you remain speechless?
PROTESTER: We ask to know what you think. Do you stay with these women? Are you with this nation that deserves due process?
JOURNALIST: Senator, do you want to respond to their complaints? Senator, do you worry about answering their complaints?
FLAKE: No, no. I have to go to the hearing. I just made a statement. I will say more, too.
PROTESTER: We can not have an answer?
FLAKE: No, there have been a lot of questions here, and I do not want –
PROTESTER: There is only one question.
JOURNALIST: The American Bar Association says they should wait for a F.B.I. investigation. Do not you think that?
PROTESTER: – to be heard by the highest authorities in power –
PROTESTER: Do what is right.
[Inaudible]
FLAKE: Thank you.
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