She’s mad as hell and she isn’t taking it anymore.
Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, one of only four women on the 21-member Senate Judiciary Committee, no longer has the patience to be diplomatic towards her fellow senators. Her recent outspokenness has placed her in the spotlight of debate over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up. Do the right thing, for a change,” Hirono said Tuesday, stealing the show at a press conference that featured several high-profile Democrats.
Later on Wednesday, when Republicans said that they have made every effort to connect with Christine Blasey Ford who has accused Supreme Cort nominee Brett Kavanaugh of an assault and attempted rape, Hirono’s response was, “I would like us to come together and figure out what is the best way to proceed,” Hirono told ABC News.
“Not this seat-of-the-pants stuff,” she added. “The latest, being a letter from the chairman to the Democrats saying, ‘We have done everything we can to contact her.’ That is such bulls**t, I can’t hardly stand it.”
We will not stand for the continued victimization and smearing of Dr. Blasey Ford. All of us must work to end this kind of treatment of survivors who bravely share their experiences. pic.twitter.com/kgJtRUK0Hq
— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) September 18, 2018
During the judiciary committee hearings, Hirono asked the questions that she has asked all judicial appointees since Donald Trump was elected.
Had Kavanaugh “made unwanted requests for sexual favors” or committed verbal or physical harrassment of a sexual nature since he became a legal adult? And had he ever faced discipline or settled with anyone over that kind of conduct?
Kavanaugh said “no” to both questions at his confirmation hearing earlier this month. But few in the room, or watching on television, knew at the time how Hirono’s questions would come back to haunt him.
A little more than a week after he answered those questions, California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford has come forward to allege that at a house party in the 1980s, a drunken, 17 year-old Kavanaugh tried undressing her and muffling her cries on a bed before she fled. Kavanaugh denies that account.
Republicans were fumbling at first putting Kavanaugh’s nomination in danger of being tossed out. However, they rallied. GOP senators (all male) on the Senate Judicial Committee began questioning the veracity of Blasey’s accusation. Sen. Orrin Hatch said Blasey was “mixed up.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judicial Committee, scheduled questioning of Kavanaugh and Blasey for Monday (Sept. 24) . Blasey and her lawyers didn’t take the bait for what would have been a hostile event and turned down the invitation. They said they would prefer that the FBI reopen their probe of Kavanaugh first before proceeding the judiciary committee questions so that the hearing doesn’t devolve into a “he-said, she-said” situation.
Grassley insisted on the Monday hearings, placing a deadline (Friday, Sept. 21, 10 a.m. EDT) for Blasey’s response. The California professor, who by now was receiving death threats, said she would be too glad to submit to the committee questions, but later in the week. At press time, negotiations continue between Grassley and Blasey.
Hirono’s outrage — and her commitment to holding male nominees accountable — has a deep history, according to the Associated Press. When the Hawaiian senator was a child, her mother fled an abusive marriage in Japan and took Hirono and her brother to Hawaii.
“There is an environment where people see nothing, hear nothing, and say nothing,” Hirono said this week about the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. “That is what we have to change.”
“She’s a badass,” said Christina Reynolds of the advocacy group EMILY’s List, which supports women candidates. “The fact that she’s getting up there and calling it out, I think it’s inspiring for us to watch.”
Hirono is the only senator who can call herself an immigrant. She was born in Japan and her parents were not citizens, according to the Senate Historical Office.
Hirono, who has had a relatively low profile in the 12 years she has worked in the Senate, has grown more feisty and outspoken since she was diagnosed a year ago with cancer in her kidney, which is being treated.
She acknowledges her profile has risen in recent months: making an emotional appeal to her Senate colleagues over the GOP attempts to undo the Affordable Care Act and speaking out against Trump’s immigration policies. “The Trump administration gives me so many more opportunities to be verbal and vocal.” she says.
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