| For Immediate Release: September 20, 2018 Contact: [email protected] |
As the news about Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged attempted rape continues to occupy the national conversation, Mainers are asking: We believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, but does Senator Collins? NARAL members stormed the Hill and launched a digital ad campaign asking this same question.
Senator Collins should not side with Brett Kavanaugh over Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, and should join the growing call for Kavanaugh to withdraw his nomination. We’ve seen him lie time and time again, even potentially perjuring himself during his Senate confirmation hearings last week. It begs the question, if he has already lied, multiple times, how can Senator Collins believe him now? The answer is simple, she can’t. Mainers know Kavanaugh can’t be trusted to make decisions about our most fundamental freedoms.
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Secret emails that Republicans tried to hide from the American people revealed rock solid evidence that Brett Kavanaugh misled senators and the American people on his views about abortion and Roe v Wade. The emails revealed that, despite the show he put on in front of the Senate, Kavanaugh questions if Roe is “settled law” and thinks the Supreme Court “can always overrule its precedent.”
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The “committee confidential” emails released during the hearings showed that Kavanaugh made a series of false statements, under oath, during hearings for his current position on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and again at hearings for our highest Court. Then and now, his answers simply weren’t true.
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In 2004, 2006 and during his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh lied about whether he used materials stolen from Democratic senators to advance President Bush’s judicial nominees.
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Kavanaugh made false and misleading statements on a number of issues, including his views on abortion, because he knows he would never be confirmed if the American public — and Republicans in the Senate — finds out his true beliefs, his true ideological agenda, and his dark past as a far-right wing political operative.
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Brett Kavanaugh used his Senate hearings to push lies and junk science often pedaled by the anti-choice movement. He referred to birth control as “abortion-inducing drugs”, a phrase that is not only widely disproven by scientific evidence but is also widely used by the extreme anti-choice movement.
In the past, Senator Collins publicly condemned sexual assault and, in some cases, supported legislation to protects women and victims of sexual violence.
Collins has:
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Stated that she did not vote for Trump because of the sexual assault allegations against him: “those allegations remain very disturbing.”
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Claimed “Survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence should have access to every resource available to ensure their safety” in a joint op-ed with Senator Angus King .
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Said “I want to thank the very brave young athletes who have spoken out about their personal experiences of sexual abuse and shone a spotlight on this horrendous crime,” during a press conference with gymnasts who had been sexually abused by coaches or trainers.
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Claimed that sexual assault incidents are “heinous.”
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Championed legislative effort to decrease instances of sexual assault on college campuses and to provide justice for survivors and perpetrators.
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Showed disappointment with the RNC support of Roy Moore, even going as far as to call it a “mistake.”
Mainers are rising up, standing in solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and against dishonest Brett Kavanaugh, and they’re paying attention to whether or not Senator Collins will do the same.
Mainers are rising up, standing in solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and against dishonest Brett Kavanaugh, and they’re paying attention to whether or not Senator Collins will do the same.
Mainers write postcards urging Collins to vote No and Kavanaugh and thanking Senator King for publicly saying he will vote No.
Mainers visit the office of Senator Collins and say “You have the power to save Roe v. Wade”