[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 154 (Monday, September 17, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6194-S6195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     NOMINATION OF JUDGE KAVANAUGH

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak about the 
opioid legislation. I will get to that; however, I do wish to briefly 
comment on another critical issue.
  Once again, I want to thank Professor Ford for her bravery. This is 
not easy for anyone. Nobody asks for this to happen to them, and I can 
only imagine the trauma and heartache involved in sharing and reliving 
a sexual assault like this. But she should know that I and millions of 
people are standing by her side and stand ready to help however we can.
  I want to make three points.
  First, this nomination needs to be delayed. The idea that this 
nomination could be jammed through given what we know now is almost 
unthinkable and would be shameful and wrong. Whatever one may think 
about the timing of this new information and the process that has taken 
us to this point, the fact is that Senators now have new information 
about a potential crime committed by a nominee for the highest Court in 
the land and an individual who has come forward with details of the 
alleged criminal act, and we can't simply ignore it.
  There is no urgency to fill this seat before October. Republicans 
held a Supreme Court seat open for more than a year in order to prevent 
President Obama from fulfilling his constitutional role, so surely we 
can take the time we need now in order to fulfill our constitutional 
role. To be very clear, we should have nine Justices on the Supreme 
Court, but it is more important right now to slow down, make sure we 
have all of the facts, all the information, and that Senators have a 
chance to weigh that before casting a vote to a position of such 
importance.
  Secondly, we need a full, fair, and robust investigation into these 
allegations, and we need this to happen before anyone is brought in to 
testify or ``re-testify'' to make sure Senators have the information 
they need to ask the right questions and to do their jobs.
  We saw what happened in 1991 when an accuser was brought in for 
questioning before the Senators had access to all of the corroborating 
information, and we cannot allow that to happen again. We saw the way 
Senators completely mishandled the questioning of Anita Hill when they 
didn't have access to the facts, hadn't yet heard from all of the 
witnesses, and didn't have a grasp of the information and her 
experience. I am very worried this would happen exactly that way again 
if we don't take the time to do this right. There is no way a thorough 
investigation can be completed in time for a hearing on Monday.
  That brings me to my third and most important point. We cannot allow 
this to turn into another attack on a woman who has come forward to 
talk about her experience. We just can't.

[[Page S6195]]

The Senate needs to be better than that. And I am going to do 
everything I can with anyone who is willing to join me to make sure we 
are.
  I joined millions of women in 1991 in watching as Anita Hill was 
attacked, interrogated, and maligned on national television simply for 
sharing her experience. A generation of women watched what happened to 
her and were then less likely to share their own stories and more 
likely to let their attackers and harassers off the hook because they 
saw what happened to Anita Hill at the hands of the U.S. Senate, and 
they didn't want anything like that to happen to them. That cannot 
happen again. An all-male Judiciary Committee dropped the ball in 1991. 
We cannot allow an all-male Republican side of the Judiciary Committee 
to do the same in 2018.
  Over the past year, we have made some tremendous strides with the 
``me too.'' movement and the understanding more and more that sexual 
harassment and assault is not OK and cannot be tolerated no matter how 
powerful the perpetrator. We have made tremendous strides with the 
understanding more and more that women who have come forward should be 
listened to, should be heard and believed, and that investigations and 
all appropriate actions should be taken once they have come forward to 
share their experience. We have made tremendous strides with the 
understanding more and more that women who come forward do so at great 
cost. None of them want to have to do so. All of them wish they had 
never been through what they went through. And the idea that they are 
making it up for some personal gain or agenda is as wrong as it is 
offensive.
  We have made progress, but all that progress is at stake if this is 
now allowed to become a replay of what happened to Anita Hill, and I am 
already seeing some troubling signs of some people going down that 
path. Right away, some Republicans have shifted into an attack mode, 
attacking the process and starting to attack the accuser. I can only 
imagine Republicans are getting ready to attack and interrogate 
Professor Ford in a misguided attempt to protect Judge Kavanaugh and 
put politics ahead of their job as U.S. Senators and their duty to 
their constituents. We cannot allow attacks like that to happen. I urge 
all of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to put a stop to it 
whenever they see it.
  Let's look at the facts. Let's investigate the allegations. Let's 
consider what that means for our view on this nominee, but let's make 
sure that it doesn't become another 1991, and let's make sure this 
doesn't become another attack on a woman resulting in another chill on 
women everywhere.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to turn to another issue, and I 
ask unanimous consent that my remarks appear in the Record before the 
vote took place.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.

                          ____________________