Margot Cleveland Opinion contributor The Democrats declared war on Brett Kavanaugh in the name of women’s rights. But not only did the left’s attempt to deny Kavanaugh a place on the Supreme Court with last-minute allegations of sexual misconduct fail, the tactics employed have also wrought immeasurable and long-term damage on victims of sexual assault. Since Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation that now-Justice Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago, while they were both high school students, Democrats have portrayed her mere allegation as proof conclusive of Kavanaugh’s guilt. “We must believe survivors,” became the battle cry. And Democrats, such as Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, citing the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, warned that Kavanaugh’s confirmation will “send a message to every victim of sexual violence that their pain doesn’t matter, that they do not deserve justice, and that for them, fair treatment is out of reach. This will only serve to drive victims into the shadows, and further emboldening abusers.” Democrats' posturing will hurt at the polls The left’s political posturing has broadcast to victims a devastatingly untrue message, and Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Saturday has now cemented that lesson in the conscious of countless victims, leaving them convinced that speaking out about sexual abuse is futile. However, rather than continuing to push this false narrative, what Democrats need is an incarnation of the moderate, pro-choice Republican Sen. Susan Collins — someone willing to proclaim the difficult truth: Ford’s claims of sexual assault were not believed because they were not believable. Beyond Ford, Democrats further harmed the cause of justice for sexual abuse victims by propping up Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick’s charges of sexual misconduct as “serious allegations.” Ramirez, who claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her while they were both freshman at Yale, came forward with her allegation only after spending a week chatting with attorneys and thinking over her decades-old memory of a drunken night. And every person with direct knowledge of the supposed assault denied Kavanaugh’s involvement. Swetnick’s ridiculous gang-rape charge advanced by lawyer Michael Avenatti, of Stormy Daniels’ fame, further proved the political motivation behind these unbelievable 11th-hour claims. More:Christine Blasey Ford's changing Kavanaugh assault story leaves her short on credibility Rejuvenated Republicans rediscover unity in litmus-test Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight Brett Kavanaugh will bring change to the Supreme Court, but maybe not what you think Every fake rape claim, from Tawana Brawley's tale in the late 1980s that four white men kidnapped and raped her, to the fiction Rolling Stone magazine perpetuated when it told “Jackie’s” tale of being raped by University of Virginia fraternity members, increases the public’s skepticism of sexual assault allegations. And skepticism quickly hardens to cynicism when the story screams it is a partisan hit job. The cynicism, however, will not be limited to high-profile cases with clear political motivations. That is why the Democrats’ failed attempt to keep Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court will also backfire electorally when women flock to the polls next month for midterm elections. Women see allegations as a risk for families The extreme left of the Democratic Party may celebrate leaders’ no-holds-bar attempt to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation, but swing suburban moms are appalled by the Democrats’ ill-use of Ford, Ramirez and Swetnick. In Ford, women saw a distraught and damaged woman paraded before the Senate, her privacy in tatters, because her sexual assault allegations were leaked to the news media at the most politically opportune moment. And as Ford’s story fell apart following her testimony, women saw the obvious harm the Democrats’ tactic will inflict on real victims of sexual assault. Moderate women voters also find Democratic senators’ utter disregard for the men affected by false claims of sexual assault terrifying. Women watched as Kavanaugh spoke forcefully to defend his name and honor, and in Kavanaugh, women saw their innocent fathers, husbands, brothers, or sons, falsely accused, condemned and left with a reputation irreparably damaged. And in Kavanaugh’s loving wife, young daughters and distraught mother, women saw themselves and their families. Women also saw the future of a society that puts politics over the principles of fairness and the presumption of innocence. And they saw Democrats leading that charge. Democratic politicians, professional protesters and reproductive-rights activists are so blinded by their rage at how President Donald Trump succeeded in appointing a second originalist justice to the Supreme Court, they cannot see the anger they unleashed in the apolitical populace across America. They will see it, though, come November. Margot Cleveland is a lawyer and an adjunct instructor at the University of Notre Dame. Follow her on Twitter: @ProfMJCleveland<doc-sep>Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's wife, Ashley, has been receiving graphic and violent threats, according to emails obtained by Fox News, following reported harassment also directed at accuser Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh himself. WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE BELOW "Please tell your rapist, lying, cheating, corrupt b---h of a husband to put a bullet in his ugly f-----g skull," one email to Kavanaugh’s wife read. "My condolences to you for being married to a rapist. Although you probably deserve it." Another email, with the subject line, "Did your know your husband is a rapist?????" stated: "Hey b---h, did you know your husband was a rapist before you married him? F--k you and your f-----g family." A third email, typed entirely in capital letters, read, "F--K YOU AND YOUR RAPIST HUSBAND." "F--K YOU, RAPE ENABLING C--T. YOUR HUSBAND IS A LIAR, THIEF, RAPIST AND PROBABLY A PEDOPHILE. BURN IN HELL YOU WORTHLESS F-----G C--T," the email stated. "MAY YOU, YOUR HUSBAND AND YOUR KIDS BURN IN HELL YOU F-----G PIECES OF TRASH. EAAAAATTTTT S-----------T!!!!!!!!!!" Ashley Estes, who served as George W. Bush's personal secretary during his years in the White House, married Kavanaugh in 2004. She works as a town manager in Chevy Chase, Maryland. WHY STATUS OF KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION PROCESS COULD BECOME MORE CLEAR ON FRIDAY Kavanaugh, the nominee, is himself receiving death threats, a senior source told Fox News. He has adamantly denied Ford's allegations against him. In the days after she accused Kavanaugh, 53, of pinning her to a bed in the 1980s and trying to forcibly remove her clothing, Ford, a college professor in California, has reportedly received threats against her life. WHO IS CHRISTINE FORD, THE PROFESSOR WHO ACCUSED BRETT KAVANAUGH OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT? Ford's lawyers told The New York Times that in addition to threats, her email account has been hacked and she's been forced to leave her home. Ford's attorney on Thursday said the professor "would be prepared to testify" to the Senate Judiciary Commmittee about her accusations against the nominee next week, as long as senators provide "terms that are fair and which ensure her safety." Fox News' Kristin Brown and Gregg Re contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Amelia Penniman Opinion contributor For weeks Democrats have been saying the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, and the ensuing Republican effort to jam through a tainted nominee bode very, very ill for the GOP. Now that Kavanaugh has been confirmed with “yes” votes from all but one Republican senator, Republicans who were already preparing themselves for a political reckoning this Election Day might as well throw in the towel. Kavanaugh was a historically unpopular and toxic nominee who disqualified himself repeatedly throughout his confirmation process. Placing him on the Supreme Court through a rigged, partisan process has only added fuel to the anti-GOP fire already burning across the country. First consider the polling. A poll commissioned by Demand Justice the week before Ford’s testimony suggested that Democrats in key battleground states — Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota — wanted their Democratic senators to oppose Kavanaugh. A hypothetical yes vote for Kavanaugh would suppress Democratic turnout those senators desperately need. Kavanaugh's unpopularity will hurt at the polls Then there are the eye-popping numbers that followed the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing on Sept. 27: an 18-point drop in net support by Republican women polled by Morning Consult and Politico, and an Oct. 1 Quinnipiac poll that showed Americans opposing confirmation 48 to 42 percent. Women in that poll opposed confirmation 55-37 percent. And the percentage is much higher for Democratic women; more than nine in 10 in another poll disapproved of Kavanaugh. He's the least popular Supreme Court nominee in a generation. More:Democrats have unleashed a red wave of Brett Kavanaugh-believing women voters With Brett Kavanaugh confirmed, Trump's poison touch infects the Supreme Court Don't reward Republicans for Brett Kavanaugh and the politics of personal annihilation The net result? A Kavanaugh confirmation only serves to rev up the Democratic base and ensure robust Democratic turnout. And since he has been confirmed, Republican voters may be more likely to forget this by Election Day. Democratic voters — Democratic women in particular — will remember. A less quantifiable factor should have Republicans even more afraid: the raw emotion and intensity elicited by this flawed, embarrassing process. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony resonated Ford’s testimony triggered something deep within women across the country: our colleagues, our apolitical female friends, women of all backgrounds and political stripes who know all too well the feelings of shame and self-doubt that come with speaking truth to power. This is something that men — Republicans, Democrats, and political pundits — will never understand. And it is something that, as a result, has been vastly underestimated. The impact of this lack of sympathy for what is a far from unusual female experience cannot be overstated. And it will be on full display in the form of backlash to the GOP in a few short weeks. Republicans may think they just netted a win. But in doing so they have sacrificed their integrity and their humility. And they did so in front of a vast audience of Americans. In a midterm election cycle that was already careening towards catastrophe for Republicans over health care and tax cuts, Kavanaugh’s confirmation will bolster a historic Democratic turnout led by women. Amelia Penniman is the Communications Director for Senate Campaigns for American Bridge. Follow her on Twitter: @AmeliaPenniman<doc-sep>The best reporting of the #MeToo movement has shown that when journalists examine all the possible holes in an accuser’s account, find corroborating witnesses and documentary evidence, and give the accused the opportunity to respond, they make the victim’s story more powerful. (Men can sexually assault men, women can sexually assault women, and women can sexually assault men. But the vast majority of these allegations are of males assaulting females.) Unfortunately, we must also accept the reality that the fact-finding process will, by its very nature, cause pain to both parties. The New York Times editorial page on Monday blasted how Christine Blasey Ford has been treated since she went public with her account of a frightening sexual attack by a then-teenage Brett Kavanaugh. It noted that the 11 Republican men on the Judiciary Committee brought in a female prosecutor to “chip away” at Ford’s testimony. Certainly, the hearing was odd, flawed, and ripe for parody on Saturday Night Live. But the Republican questioning of Ford was not particularly harsh, and while it was intended to knock her credibility, that’s the purpose of adversarial proceedings. In the end, Ford’s answers and her demeanor buttressed her account, whereas Kavanaugh’s histrionics led some to question his fitness for the bench. Conservative women are angry about Kavanaugh—and they think other voters are, too I am one of the many women who experienced sexual assaults earlier in life and never told anyone, until I wrote a story about these events for Slate in 2012. It was at the time of the Jerry Sandusky trial, and many victims were questioned about why they had kept quiet. So I explained why I didn’t tell. Like Ford, I have a vivid and visceral recollection of the assaults and a missing memory of the peripheral details, especially what happened afterward. In one instance, when I was 15, I was visiting my best friend, and her father drove me home after dinner. He parked in front of my house and started babbling about how a man gets angry and frustrated when a wife won’t meet his needs. Then he lunged at me, putting his hands on my breasts and his mouth on mine. I pushed him off, escaped from the car, and got to my front door. But the rest of the night, what happened after I entered my home and pretended everything was fine, is a blank. I have also spent the past several years reporting on the injustices done to accused students—almost all men—in campus sexual-assault proceedings under Title IX, the federal law that forbids sex discrimination in schools. (Here is my Atlantic series on the subject.) During the Obama administration, that law became the basis for vast college bureaucracies that govern the sexual behavior of students. On campuses, many Title IX allegations spring from sexual encounters (often lubricated by alcohol) between young adults that both parties agree began consensually. Frequently, an allegation turns on whether the accused failed to follow the campus rules of “affirmative consent,” which essentially requires that unambiguous consent, preferably verbal, be obtained for each touch, each time, even between established partners.<doc-sep>
President Donald Trump claimed Justice Brett Kavanaugh was "proven innocent" of the numerous sexual misconduct allegations that nearly upended his confirmation to the Supreme Court. "A man or woman, must always be presumed innocent unless, and until proven guilty," Trump said at Kavanaugh's swearing-in ceremony on Monday night. "And with that, I must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent." The FBI investigated a claim made by Christine Blasey Ford, a California university professor who said Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. The results of that investigation, delivered in a report to the White House and Senate lawmakers last week, led the White House and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to say there was no evidence to corroborate Ford's claims. While both Ford and Kavanaugh testified about the allegations in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 27, the proceeding was not a trial and no verdicts were rendered. President Donald Trump raised eyebrows during Justice Brett Kavanaugh's swearing-in ceremony when he suggested Kavanaugh was "proven innocent" of the numerous sexual misconduct allegations that nearly upended his confirmation to the Supreme Court. "Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation," Trump said, referring to Kavanaugh's vetting process. "Not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency, and due process." Trump said "a man or woman, must always be presumed innocent unless, and until proven guilty." "And with that, I must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent." The FBI investigated a claim made by Christine Blasey Ford, a California university professor who said Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. The agency took about a week to interview 10 out of the 11 people who agreed to talk. The results of that investigation, delivered in a report to the White House and Senate lawmakers last week, led the White House and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to say there was no evidence to corroborate Ford's claims. While both Ford and Kavanaugh testified about the allegations in front of the committee on September 27, the proceeding was not a trial, and no verdicts were rendered. But critics, including Democratic lawmakers and Ford's attorneys, claimed that the FBI never followed up with potential interviewees and also alleged that the investigation was too narrow in time and scope. Despite the concerns, the Senate Judiciary Committee concluded that "there is no corroboration of the allegations" after receiving the FBI's supplemental report. "There's nothing in it that we didn't already know," Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement after receiving the FBI report. "These uncorroborated accusations have been unequivocally and repeatedly rejected by Judge Kavanaugh, and neither the Judiciary Committee nor the FBI could locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations." The Senate confirmed Kavanaugh in a 50-48 vote on Saturday.