Kavanaugh candidacy assailed at plaza rally

City Councillor Ayanna Pressley made a point at at Monday’s City Hall plaza rally.
Chris Lovett photo

Hundreds of protesters turned out at City Hall Plaza on Monday to rally against the confirmation of federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. The protest was timed to coincide with the appearance in the city the same day of US Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who spoke at a Forbes event outside City Hall.

Flake voted last week in favor of Kavanaugh’s confirmation in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but also requested a brief FBI inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct against the nominee.

US Sen. Ed Markey, Boston Mayor MartinWalsh, and Ayanna Pressley, the presumptive next member of Congress from the 7th Congressional District, all spoke at the rally.

In discussing last week’s Senate panel hearings, during which Kavanaugh and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, testified in a widely watched and emotional hearing, Pressley told the gathering that responses to the hearings represent a culture of complicity when it comes to sexual violence.

“There were men in positions of power who described those proceedings as a disgrace to our nation, when the real disgrace is a tolerant rape culture that has used rape and sexual violence as a tool of oppression, as a weapon of war,” she said, “and we have been complicit in our silence.”

For his part, Flake said he doesn’t want silence, he wants answers, noting that that’s why he called for an FBI inquiry before the Senate takes its final vote on the nomination. President Trump acceded to Flake’s request, ordering the  FBI to conduct a limited “supplemental investigation” into his high court nominee.

Walsh said he supported the protesters. “The people that are here today are passionate, there are a lot of survivors here, and it’s important for us to let the survivors know that we stand with them in their difficult times in their life where they felt no one stood with them. We need to stand with them today.”

Markey, a Democrat and the state’s senior senator, had said he would vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation before the allegations of sexual misconduct came to light.

Said Jamaica Plain resident Gabi Morgan, a transgender woman and survivor of assault who was at the rally: “What scared me most about Kavanaugh is early on when he just made it sound like it was all Democrats attacking him. That worries me — that he would be impartial on the bench. When he used the term ‘What goes around, comes around,’ it sounded like a threat to me — to anybody who opposed him.”

A vote by the full Senate could happen as early as this week.

With additional reporting from WBUR’s Benjamin Swasey.

This story first appeared on WBUR 90.9FM on Oct. 1. The Reporter and WBUR have a partnership in which the two news organizations share resources and content.


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