WASHINGTON, D.C., October 9, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Democrat lawmaker who suggested Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s innocence should be doubted due to his abortion rulings refused to condemn left-wing harassment of her Republican colleagues over the weekend.
On Sunday, Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” to discuss the just-ended battle over Kavanaugh, who the Senate confirmed 50-48 the day before after a bitter three-month battle over his abortion views and unsubstantiated, last-minute allegations of sexual assault. At one point, host Dana Bash asked about the furious protests that descended on Capitol Hill and the left-wing activists who’ve pursued Republicans in their private lives.
“It is one thing to protest at the Supreme Court, to do it at the Capitol,” Bash said, according to CNN's transcript. That's been done for generations and, frankly, since the founding of this country. It's another thing to run senators out of restaurants, go to their homes. Is that going too far?”
After laughing at the characterization of screaming protesters as an “angry mob,” Hirono claimed that it “just means that there are a lot of people who are very, very much motivated by what is going on,” because the hearing “was not a fair process” to Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford.
As Hirono started to accuse Republicans of trying to “rig the hearings,” Bash interjected to reiterate her question: “Should the going after people at restaurants stop?”
“Well, this is what happens,” the senator replied, refusing to answer but hinting that she did condone the harassment. “When you look at white supremacists and all of that, this is what is coming forth in our country. There's a tremendous divisiveness in our country. But this is the kind of activism that occurs. And people make their own decisions.
“If they violate the law, then they have to account for that,” Hirono added. From there, Bash moved on to another question.
Hirono made national headlines last month first when the Wall Street Journal criticized her for preemptively declaring, without having seen any corroborating evidence, that “women like Dr. Ford […] need to be believed,” then for telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that Kavanaugh’s denial lacked “credibility” in the “context of everything that I know about him in terms of how he approaches his cases,” particularly the fact that “he very much is against women’s reproductive choice.”
None of the people Ford claims attended the 1980s party where Kavanaugh allegedly tried to rape her could recall any such event, and anti-Kavanaugh Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE, admitted there was “nothing in here that is some bombshell that is unknown” in the FBI’s seventh look into the judge’s background.
Numerous prominent Republicans, including White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, have found themselves pursued by left-wing protesters at restaurants and airports over the past several months, a tactic California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters openly endorsed. New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker told an audience in July to “go to the Hill today” and “please, get up in the face of some congresspeople.”
Other prominent liberal leaders have signaled that they agree in the wake of Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Planned Parenthood’s Dawn Laguens and Cecile Richards encouraged their followers to “unleash your rage” and “stay angry,” while failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told CNN this week that Democrats shouldn’t be “civil” with Republicans until her party retakes Congress.