Yet hearing Rubio actually voice those awful thoughts still sucks. Just one day after Christine Blasey Ford choked up on Capitol Hill while explaining how Kavanaugh and accomplice Mark Judge allegedly shoved her into a room and laughed while Kavanaugh covered her mouth and tried to rip her clothes off, Rubio said this morning he'll still vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
Worse, Rubio also said he refuses to "give credence" to Blasey Ford. He also said this entire process will somehow prevent more sexual assault victims from coming forward, as if it's the victims' fault that the spineless jackals in the Republican Party are pushing Kavanaugh's confirmation vote forward today after Blasey Ford unambiguously testified that Kavanaugh committed sexual assault.
"I will not vote against the nomination of someone who I am otherwise inclined to support, and in the process add credence to charges which have already done permanent damage to his reputation, on the basis of allegations for which there is no independent corroboration," Rubio said today, as part of a long-winded, altogether bad-faith statement in which he tried to be nice to "both sides" before admitting he was going to ram Kavanaugh into the nation's highest court anyway.
Rubio's two-page statement is a perfect example of how utterly full of shit his calls for "civility" on both sides really are: He spends multiple paragraphs explaining that Blasey Ford's claims are "serious" and worth "being heard." But he then fraudulently claims there's no way to corroborate or independently verify her statements.
That's simply not true: The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 earlier today to simply avoid asking Judge, a central witness according to Blasey Ford, to testify. Rubio is also not backing Democratic calls for an FBI investigation into the claims. He's just fine with voting on this confirmation without those simple extra steps because he trusts Kavanaugh will protect Rubio's legislative agenda, which notably includes repealing abortion rights for women nationwide. But Rubio wants the world to think he feels bad and is still a Good Republican. In reality, Rubio doesn't give one single fuck.
Blasey Ford testified yesterday, under penalty of perjury, that Kavanaugh committed a crime. In any other circumstance, such as a robbery or murder case, it would be considered insane to voluntarily choose not to interview a central witness to the alleged act. (It's also worth noting this is not a criminal trial — it's effectively a job interview where senators can vote a nominee down for literally any reason they want. Simply having a gut feeling that a nominee might be an asshole is a 100 percent legal reason to vote no.)
Yet here's Rubio claiming Blasey Ford is dealing with "deep pain and anguish" before outright stating he plans to vote for Kavanaugh anyway without interviewing any of the other people involved or getting law enforcement to do so. He then apologizes to Kavanaugh for having to deal with all of this and blames society for being mad about the situation instead of admitting he simply does not care about the pain and anguish of an assault survivor:
"We have lost the capacity to view Judge Kavanaugh as a son, husband, and father, whose parents, wife, and children have had to endure watching him labeled a deviant and even a rapist," Rubio wrote. "Instead, he is treated as a dispensable combatant whose right to be treated fairly must take a back seat to the role his nomination plays in a broader partisan and cultural war."
Congrats if you read that last bit without giving yourself a brain aneurysm. Rubio is reducing a fight over a Supreme Court seat to a random Twitter beef over whether Wonder Woman should have American-flag-print pants, instead of the critically important position that it really is.
Kavanaugh, if confirmed, will have the power to strip abortion and contraceptive rights from women. In Rubio World, anyone who refuses to sit quietly while their rights are ripped away is a whining partisan in the "culture war." The only people he likes are the ones who either agree with him or shut up and let him do what he wants to society. (Gov. Rick Scott, who's running for Senate and would, if elected, have a say over Supreme Court nominees, says he'd vote for Kavanaugh and believes the guy has been "smeared.")
Obviously, it's important to figure out if a person given the immense power of a Supreme Court seat committed violence against women. Rubio knows how important Kavanaugh's confirmation really is — that's precisely why he's still voting for him without bothering to get to the bottom of the facts.
Look at the rest of this nonsense:
The most jaw-dropping section in the statement might be this one:Anyone claiming harassment or assault should be taken seriously & be heard. However,because such accusations can have a devastating impact, an accusers wish to not be identified should be accommodated & evidence of wrongdoing should be clearly established: Full statement here: pic.twitter.com/ps4lyZAFmy
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 28, 2018
"How many victims will now choose to remain silent? And who in their right mind would offer themselves up for public service if all that is required to have your reputation permanently destroyed is uncorroborated claims which are then spread far and wide?"
If this entire process leads women to fear coming forward about sexual assault, the fault doesn't lie with Senate Democrats or the three women brave enough to bring claims against Kavanaugh — Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick.
The fault instead lies with men like Rubio, who heard their stories, claimed they were "credible" women dealing with pain, and then chose to say their stories don't matter.
