No sooner did some anonymous White House aides brag to Axios about preventing Trump from attacking Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser on Twitter than the president did exactly that.
Earlier this week, Trump had been uncharacteristically neutral about Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor who came forward last week with allegations that the SCOTUS nominee sexually assaulted her in the summer of 1982. The dam first cracked during one of the president’s completely normal and necessary Two Minutes Hate-style rallies on Thursday night. That’s where Trump, referring to Ford’s request that the FBI investigate her claim, asked the “lock-her-up” chanting crowd why someone didn’t call the FBI 36 years ago. Then came the Friday morning tweet-geyser.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don’t want to know the answers, they just want to destroy and delay. Facts don’t matter. I go through this with them every single day in D.C.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
The radical left lawyers want the FBI to get involved NOW. Why didn’t someone call the FBI 36 years ago?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
There were other tweets (there always are) and they were all over the place (as ever.) Here’s the gist: Brett Kavanagh is a fine man, he couldn’t have done this! But even if he did, how come the police never heard about it? And why are we only hearing about it now?
If Trump actually had any genuine curiosity about why 70% of rapes go unreported, he could have easily found out. There’s a wealth of documented information available, and every man would benefit from brushing up on it. But the question was rhetorical. The last thing Trump wanted, who famously has been accused of sexual assault by 14 women and suffered zero consequences, was an answer. Most likely, he was just sick of not going on the offense and felt the need to publicly scrutinize Ford’s accusation, thereby getting millions of followers to parrot his line of questioning in the process. It’s a typically insidious attack for Trump.
And it may have backfired.
As little as Trump cared about getting an answer to his question, the women of Twitter were more than happy to comply. Within hours of Trump’s tweets, the top trending topic was #WhyIDidntReport. Much like last year’s initial #MeToo outpouring, thousands of women took to Twitter to tell their stories, reliving deep personal trauma in the service of making a collective point.
When I was 16, I had pretty much the same experience as Ford. My (supportive & loving) parents still don't know. At the time, I thought I might get in trouble for being there in the first place & also I was embarrassed & wanted badly to just forget. I never did. #WhyIDidntReport
— maura quint (@behindyourback) September 21, 2018
For me, it was a man who broke into my apartment in the middle of the night when I was 18. And I didn't tell my parents because I didn't want to be yelled at for the rest of my life for having brought this on myself somehow. #WhyIDidntReport
— Merrill Markoe (@Merrillmarkoe) September 21, 2018
I can't stop thinking abt the white boy frm the other soccer team at the after game party who was so cute and I was enamored and none of the popular white boys at my school liked me that way and this boy asked me if I wanted to talk and led me to a dark room #WhyIDidntReport
— Rebecca Carroll (@rebel19) September 21, 2018
I did report. I went to the hospital and the SVU in Brooklyn and told them what happened to me.
They told me what I described was a rape. I was starting law school in 3 weeks so I decided not to press charges. Biggest mistake of my life. #WhyIDidntReport
— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) September 21, 2018
I didn't report cuz I was afraid Dad would shoot the boy and go to jail and it would be my fault. I wish @RAINN had been around then.
Is there a Senator's aide who can compile the best of this hashtag into a doc to be read aloud in the Kavanaugh hearing?#WhyIDidntReport pic.twitter.com/hnGwJ8oRVb
— Laurie Halse Anderson (@halseanderson) September 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/1043162430921211905
#WhyIDidntReport because I’m well aware of the reality: no witnesses, no genital injuries and no semen meant no prosecution, so why bother?
If someone hurts you in just the right ways they can always get away with it.
And he did.
— Mx. Amadi Lovelace Has Left This Place (@amaditalks) September 21, 2018
It’s amazing what you can learn when you actually want to learn something!
Some men even chimed in to explain why they hadn’t reported their sexual assaults.
He was the nephew of my father’s girlfriend at the time & was older & stronger than me. It started when I was 7 & I thought he’d hurt me more & that nobody would believe me. It took 4 years to break the silence. He was abusing other kids too, I later found out. #WhyIDidntReport
— deray (@deray) September 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/JasonAdamK/status/1043180972978651138
https://twitter.com/WardogMitzy/status/1043146951162650624
I suppose we should thank Donald Trump for inadvertently triggering a very important conversation about an aspect of sexual assault that hasn’t received its proper due, even in the year of #MeToo. Unfortunately, the people who need to hear these stories the most are the ones most invested in maintaining the status quo.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: “Here’s what I want to tell you —in the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court” pic.twitter.com/Y4THijuQHt
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 21, 2018
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