A third woman—Julie Swetnick—stepped forward Wednesday to accuse President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee—Brett Kavanaugh—of sexual assault. Swetnick—represented by lawyer Michael Avenatti—provided a sworn affidavit detailing high school parties she attended where Kavanaugh and the witness named in Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's allegations—Mark Judge—both attended.
In an attempt to defend the nominee his party endorsed so stridently, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee took to Twitter Wednesday for the standard defense ploy of victim blaming and slut shaming. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina posted a series of four tweets in response to Swetnick's sworn statement.
Graham then made a similar statement on camera.
Swetnick's description includes victims being drugged and raped by multiple young men who included Kavanaugh and Judge. In her sworn statement, Swetnick said:
"I witnessed Brett Kavanaugh consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women during the early 1980s."
Swetnick stated at one of these parties, she became the victim.
While Graham's comments may play well to certain people, they likely will not sway anyone already opposed to Kavanaugh. And in the wake of the Me Too movement—spurred by powerful sexual predators in Hollywood finally facing consequences, including prison, for years of abuses—public tolerance for citing the victim's behavior or appearance as an excuse for the predator is on the decline.
People on social media let Graham know his comments regarding Swetnick, Stormy Daniels and Avenatti were inappropriate.
Kavanaugh entered the running for Justice Anthony Kennedy's vacant Supreme Court seat with the full blessing and endorsement of the Republican Party. Since then, GOP leaders' actions raised questions about the proceedings.
Now—with three women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault and the spectre of more looming—the President and GOP try to do damage control with a public that opposes their nominee at a rate higher than any other candidate since 1987. 50 percent of voters oppose Kavanaugh attaining a lifetime appointment to the SCOTUS bench according to a recent Fox News poll.
Avenatti responded Wednesday to Graham's tweets asking why the GOP and White House do not order a complete background check by the FBI like the one done on Justice Clarence Thomas.
Many others echoed Avenatti's request for an FBI investigation in their responses to Senator Graham.
Others just found Graham's comments distasteful.
Senator Graham has yet to respond to Avenatti or any of his other critics regarding his tweets.
