Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) has been critical of how Dr. Ford’s allegations against Judge Kavanaugh have been handled. Apparently, Hirono expected the men on the Senate Judiciary Committee to join the call for an FBI investigation before Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford testified under oath.
Despite the fact that women also sit on the committee, Hirono stated: “Guess who’s perpetuating all of these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country,” adding, “I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up.”
Hirono is wrong; the FBI should not get involved in this matter and men should not shut up. In addition, Hirono should apologize to the men that she so brazenly categorized, lumped together and insulted.
The FBI has no jurisdiction to investigate a 36-year-old alleged case, nor should it. The alleged incident took place many years ago and any potential claims against Judge Kavanaugh would be barred by the applicable statute(s) of limitation(s) (apparently, Maryland does not have a statute of limitations on certain types of crimes).
Moreover, the alleged incident involving Dr. Ford does not involve a federal crime or matter of national security. Therefore, unless the White House asks the FBI to re-open the matter, which is unlikely, the FBI has absolutely no reason to investigate this decade-old allegation.
Further bolstering this conclusion is the fact that Judge Kavanaugh went through multiple background checks (including an FBI background check that is conducted for all presidential nominees for the Supreme Court).
According to Greg T. Rinckey, a lawyer who specializes in federal employment issues, “the FBI generally looks into criminal or national security issues when conducting background checks … Of course, if something like this comes up in a background check, they’d report it.”
Kavanaugh also met and spoke with many (if not all) senators individually and sat through over 30 hours of testimony and over 2,000 questions at the confirmation hearing. Conveniently, nobody brought up, or asked Kavanaugh, about this alleged incident at any point. Rather, Dianne Feinstein, who learned about the alleged incident in July, only brought it up after the questioning was over and shortly before the committee was scheduled to vote.
Given the foregoing, why would Hirono place the blame for any apparent investigative shortcomings on the “men” in the Senate Judiciary Committee? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for her to direct her anger towards Feinstein, who failed to seek/initiate an investigation in July when she first learned about Dr. Ford’s allegations?
The fact that Hirono has chosen to direct her anger towards men (on the Senate Judiciary Committee) is illogical and appears to be an intentional attempt to distract and to evoke an emotional response from fellow Democrats and the American public.
Not only did Hirono take issue with the men in the Senate Judiciary Committee; she also felt compelled to instruct the men of this country to “shut up.” Specifically, Hixon expected “the enlightened men in our country” to “rise up to say, ‘We cannot continue the victimization and the smearing of someone like Dr. Ford.'”
She then blamed men for perpetuating this type of action. Hirono’s ill-advised comments are insulting and completely erroneous with respect to Dr. Ford’s case.
First, there is no relationship between a 36-year-old alleged incident involving Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh and the “men in our country,” most of whom just learned about this alleged incident.
More importantly, and contrary to Hirono’s generalization, all men aren’t victimizing or smearing Dr. Ford. Rather, some men (and women) have questions/reservations about Dr. Ford’s claims and/or the motivation behind Feinstein’s decision to disclose the alleged incident right before the committee was scheduled to vote.
These reservations appear to be warranted, given the fact that Dr. Ford has failed to provide any proof to support her allegations against Kavanaugh and the Democrats’ repeated efforts to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
While many people respect and sympathize with the fact Dr. Ford might have endured something many years ago, her claim against Kavanaugh appears to be one that is “completely lacking in contemporary corroboration and contradicted by substantial evidence” at the present time.
Her testimony on Thursday, while commendable, failed to provide any corroboration and was successfully pierced in various respects by a sex-crimes prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell. Moreover, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (a man!) bent over backward in an effort to accommodate Dr. Ford.
Finally, in his testimony on Thursday, Judge Kavanaugh didn’t smear Dr. Ford, but emotionally stated, “I’m not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time, but I have never done this to her or to anyone. That’s not who I am. It is not who I was. I am innocent of this charge. I intend no ill will to Dr. Ford and her family.”
Kavanaugh then briefly broke down as he described how, when his young daughters prayed before bed on Wednesday night, his 10-year-old daughter Liza said, apparently unprompted, “We should pray for the woman.”
“That’s a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old,” Kavanaugh said, fighting tears. “We mean no ill will.”
Sen. Hirono owes the men of this country (including those on the committee) a sincere apology. She lumped all men together into one big pile and told them all to “shut up” without any reason or justification. Moreover, as reported on FoxNews, Hirono “might have some explaining to do about her campaign cash. Data show[s] that Hawaii’s Hirono has taken money from a fellow Democrat who has admitted hitting his wife.”
This appears to be at odds with the message that she is trying to convey. In addition, “Speaking to CNN’s “State of the Union,” Hirono, D-Hawaii, called for an independent FBI investigation of Ford’s claims, before explaining why the presumption of innocence and due process should not apply to Kavanaugh’s case.” Therefore, not only did she make a generalization about men; she also opined that due process rights may not apply to some people.
In reality, many “men” in this country just learned about Dr. Ford’s allegations. As a matter of fact, Dr. Ford did not want this information publicized to begin with, as she confirmed during the course of her testimony on Thursday. Perhaps Hirono should use her words more carefully and stop generalizing and pointing fingers at those who do not deserve it.
Mr. Hakim’s articles have been published in The Daily Caller, The Federalist, The Western Journal, American Thinker, World Net Daily and other online publications.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.