Nomination of Judge Kavanaugh
Floor Speech
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak about the opioid legislation. I will get to that; however, I do wish to briefly comment on another critical issue.
Once again, I want to thank Professor Ford for her bravery. This is not easy for anyone. Nobody asks for this to happen to them, and I can only imagine the trauma and heartache involved in sharing and reliving a sexual assault like this. But she should know that I and millions of people are standing by her side and stand ready to help however we can.
I want to make three points.
First, this nomination needs to be delayed. The idea that this nomination could be jammed through given what we know now is almost unthinkable and would be shameful and wrong. Whatever one may think about the timing of this new information and the process that has taken us to this point, the fact is that Senators now have new information about a potential crime committed by a nominee for the highest Court in the land and an individual who has come forward with details of the alleged criminal act, and we can't simply ignore it.
There is no urgency to fill this seat before October. Republicans held a Supreme Court seat open for more than a year in order to prevent President Obama from fulfilling his constitutional role, so surely we can take the time we need now in order to fulfill our constitutional role. To be very clear, we should have nine Justices on the Supreme Court, but it is more important right now to slow down, make sure we have all of the facts, all the information, and that Senators have a chance to weigh that before casting a vote to a position of such importance.
Secondly, we need a full, fair, and robust investigation into these allegations, and we need this to happen before anyone is brought in to testify or ``re-testify'' to make sure Senators have the information they need to ask the right questions and to do their jobs.
We saw what happened in 1991 when an accuser was brought in for questioning before the Senators had access to all of the corroborating information, and we cannot allow that to happen again. We saw the way Senators completely mishandled the questioning of Anita Hill when they didn't have access to the facts, hadn't yet heard from all of the witnesses, and didn't have a grasp of the information and her experience. I am very worried this would happen exactly that way again if we don't take the time to do this right. There is no way a thorough investigation can be completed in time for a hearing on Monday.
That brings me to my third and most important point. We cannot allow this to turn into another attack on a woman who has come forward to talk about her experience. We just can't. The Senate needs to be better than that. And I am going to do everything I can with anyone who is willing to join me to make sure we are.
I joined millions of women in 1991 in watching as Anita Hill was attacked, interrogated, and maligned on national television simply for sharing her experience. A generation of women watched what happened to her and were then less likely to share their own stories and more likely to let their attackers and harassers off the hook because they saw what happened to Anita Hill at the hands of the U.S. Senate, and they didn't want anything like that to happen to them. That cannot happen again. An all-male Judiciary Committee dropped the ball in 1991. We cannot allow an all-male Republican side of the Judiciary Committee to do the same in 2018.
Over the past year, we have made some tremendous strides with the ``me too.'' movement and the understanding more and more that sexual harassment and assault is not OK and cannot be tolerated no matter how powerful the perpetrator. We have made tremendous strides with the understanding more and more that women who have come forward should be listened to, should be heard and believed, and that investigations and all appropriate actions should be taken once they have come forward to share their experience. We have made tremendous strides with the understanding more and more that women who come forward do so at great cost. None of them want to have to do so. All of them wish they had never been through what they went through. And the idea that they are making it up for some personal gain or agenda is as wrong as it is offensive.
We have made progress, but all that progress is at stake if this is now allowed to become a replay of what happened to Anita Hill, and I am already seeing some troubling signs of some people going down that path. Right away, some Republicans have shifted into an attack mode, attacking the process and starting to attack the accuser. I can only imagine Republicans are getting ready to attack and interrogate Professor Ford in a misguided attempt to protect Judge Kavanaugh and put politics ahead of their job as U.S. Senators and their duty to their constituents. We cannot allow attacks like that to happen. I urge all of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to put a stop to it whenever they see it.
Let's look at the facts. Let's investigate the allegations. Let's consider what that means for our view on this nominee, but let's make sure that it doesn't become another 1991, and let's make sure this doesn't become another attack on a woman resulting in another chill on women everywhere.
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to turn to another issue, and I ask unanimous consent that my remarks appear in the Record before the vote took place.
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