As the media and public were polarized watching Brett Kavanagh and Christine Blasey Ford's Senate hearing on their television screens, there was another presence in the chamber that had social media under a spell.
Actress and activist Alyssa Milano was seated behind Brett Kavanaugh, and was seen staring daggers at him during his opening statement.
Milano flew from Los Angeles to the nation's capital as a guest of California Senator Dianne Feinstein to attend the highly publicized hearing, and apparently, to admonish the Supreme Court nominee with that icy stare.
The Charmed actress is a driving force behind the #MeToo movement and was there to show her support for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford––who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by President Donald Trump's U.S. Supreme Court nominee at a high school party back in 1982.
On Thursday, Milano tweeted, "I believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford."
"I felt like I needed to be here to show my solidarity for Dr. Ford," she said, according to ABC news. "On this day that will be very difficult for her."
After filming the moment when Kavanaugh interrupted a senator, Milano called out the double standard between men and women on courtroom conduct.
When the photos from the hearing room surfaced, people couldn't help but comment on Milano's apparent "death stare" at Kavanaugh.
When Ford recounted the harrowing moment when Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge––who she says was present when the assault occurred––attacked her, ABC reported that Milano could be seen visibly emotional and dabbing her eyes with tissue.
In an essay for Vox, Milano recently showed her support for the #WhyIDidntReport movement by sharing the reason for her silence after being the victim of a sexual assault 30 years ago.
"When I was sexually assaulted, I wasn't that much older than Christine Blasey Ford — who now has a PhD in psychology — was when she says Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her (Kavanaugh denies the incident occurred)."
"I've watched, horrified, as politicians and pundits refused to believe or take seriously these allegations."
"It took me years after my assault to voice the experience to my closest friends. It took me three decades to tell my parents that the assault had even happened."
"I never filed a police report. I never told officials. I never tried to find justice for my pain because justice was never an option."
"For me, speaking up meant reliving one of the worst moments of my life."
Milano urged senators and the public to reject Kavanaugh's nomination.
"So let me be as clear as possible: I believe Christine Blasey Ford, and I demand that our senators vote to reject Brett Kavanaugh as the next justice on the Supreme Court."
"Every person who refuses to loudly and openly reject Brett Kavanaugh's nomination is telling every generation of Americans that an alleged abuser's career is more valuable than a survivor's humanity."
"And the highest court in our land is no place for an alleged sexual offender to sit."
