Senator Mazie Hirono Says Men Need to 'Shut Up and Step Up' When It Comes to Sexual Assault Allegations

From ELLE

After Christine Blasey Ford came forward to publicly accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed their scheduled vote for this week and instead invited both Ford and Kavanaugh to testify in a hearing on Monday. However, Ford's attorneys have responded and said Ford wants the FBI to investigate the assault before she testifies.

Some senators are now saying that if Ford chooses not to testify, they should go forward with the vote. In response, Sen. Mazie Hirono, who previously brought up the topic of sexual harassment during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, said she's appalled by the "callousness" of her colleagues.

"This is why I said yesterday, not only do these women need to be heard, they need to be believed," she said. "And you know what, we’re setting up on Monday a situation where there’s not even a modicum of fairness extended to her through an appropriate FBI investigation so there can be at least some attempt at corroboration. She’s not even going to get that and now she’s being faulted for not coming forward? Give me a break here."

The comments she's referring to were from a press conference where she talked about how unfair the situation is to Ford: "This is so patently unfair to her and what really bothers me and gets me so angry is the White House is victimizing this person. Why don’t we get that out there? Why should we participate in the victimization of someone who has the courage to come forward? And she is under absolutely no obligation to participate in a smearing of her and her family."

She continued, "Guess who’s perpetuating all these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country. I just want to say to the men of this country: Just shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change."

She was also asked if she wished she'd known about Ford's allegations prior to the confirmation hearings. She said, "I think our focus should be that Dr. Ford has come forward very courageously and what our committee is to do is, 'Well, what do we about it?'"

"She asked for confidentiality," Hirono continued. "I think those of us who have any kind of modicum of understanding of this kind of trauma would expect that maybe you don’t want to talk about it. This is what I mean. She has come forward. She has nothing to gain from coming forward. She hardly expects to be re-victimized and re-traumatized, but this is exactly what’s happening, and it happens way too often."

According to The Hill, President Trump has said he doesn't think the FBI should be involved in the investigation "because they don’t want to be." As of now, the FBI has declined to investigate, as they typically investigate federal crimes.

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