Sen. Hirono: ‘Appalling’ Republicans Are ‘Re-Victimizing’ Christine Ford in Asking Her to Testify

EXCERPT:

HIRONO: “You know what? I think our focus should be that Dr. Ford has come forward very courageously, and what our committee is to do is what do we do about it? Going back and saying, well, this that and the other thing, the fact is she has come forward with information that ought to be investigated by the FBI. And when Dr. Ford said she would testify, I think she expected a modicum of a fair kind of situation. You know what happened right after she came forward on Sunday? I think that’s when most of us read about it. The committee said, hey, we want to have a hearing with you, how about this coming Tuesday? Oh, if that’s not good, how about Thursday? The callousness with which she was treated — you know for any of us to have dealt at all with the experience of sexual trauma knows that this is very particularly damaging kind of experience, and you do not treat a person who has gone through this like, oh, well, hey, how about this? You know, I think it’s appalling. And I am totally disappointed that all of these people who have come forward to say we should hear from her. And now that she is expected a modicum of fairness that she's not re-victimized are now saying, well if she doesn’t want to testify, we should just go ahead. That is additional callousness from my colleagues that I am totally appalled by.”