Mazie Hirono continues her remarks over Brett Kavanaugh controversy

Sen. Mazie Hirono on Friday criticized President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for comments they made about the controversy surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying their remarks underscore how badly Republicans want to rush Kavanaugh onto the high court “come hell or high water.”

Their comments also reflect the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee’s unfair treatment of Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who alleged that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her years ago when they were teenagers, Hirono told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a phone interview.

The recent disclosure of Ford’s allegations has delayed the confirmation process amid uncertainty late Friday on whether Ford will appear before the committee next week to discuss what she says happened at a house party in the early 1980s. Ford was 15 and Kavanaugh 17 at the time.

Ford says Kavanaugh pushed her onto a bed, groped her, tried to remove her clothes and covered her mouth to prevent her from yelling for help. Kavanaugh, a federal judge, has denied the accusations.

Trump on Friday took to Twitter to question the veracity of Ford’s allegations. If the attack happened as she says, Ford or her parents would have immediately reported it to authorities, Trump said on Twitter.

Yet many experts say it is not unusual for sex assault victims to go years without telling anyone about the attacks out of fear, shame or a host of other reasons.

The president “continues to show his total lack of empathy and understanding (about) what happens to victims of this kind of sexual assault,” Hirono said. “He knows absolutely nothing. But since when has that ever stopped him from saying anything.”

McConnell push

Hirono also criticized McConnell, who told a meeting of social conservatives on Friday that Kavanaugh “in the very near future” will be on the U.S. Supreme Court. “So, my friends, keep the faith,” he told the audience. “Don’t get rattled by all this. We’re going to plow right through it and do our job.”

Hirono, whose national profile has surged because of her outspokenness over the confirmation process, said McConnell’s comment was indicative of how Republicans have treated Ford and their haste to try to make Kavanaugh the newest Supreme Court justice before the mid-term elections.

“It’s totally in line with Republicans’ desire to push this person onto the court come hell or high water,” said Hirono, a first-term senator who is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Hirono is among those who are calling for the FBI to investigate Ford’s allegations before the committee meets to hear from her and Kavanaugh. She also believes that Mark Judge, a Kavanaugh friend who Ford said was in the room during the assault, should appear before the committee as well.

Judge has said he doesn’t remember the party and never saw his friend behave like Ford alleges. Judge has not been summoned to testify before the committee.

The fact that the Republican members don’t care what Judge has to say is “just so blatantly what I would call a railroad job that it should make all of our heads spin,” Hirono said.

Making headlines

Hawaii’s junior senator has generated national headlines this week because of her blunt comments, elevating her status as a leading critic of the GOP’s handling of Ford’s allegations. The controversy has unfolded amid a charged atmosphere stemming from the #MeToo movement.

The movement has led to the downfall of high-powered male executives, politicians and media figures accused of sexual assault or harassment.

“Guess who is perpetrating all of these kinds of actions?” Hirono told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s the men in this country. And I just want to say to the men in this country — just shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change.”

On Wednesday, her remarks about a letter that Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Judiciary chairman, sent to the panel’s Democrats also garnered national headlines. Grassley said the committee had done “everything we can” to contact Ford, who at the time had not responded to an invitation to testify before the panel.

“That is such bullshit, I can’t hardly stand it,” Hirono told ABC News.

Asked about her blunt style, Hirono told the Star-Advertiser that “I’m just speaking my mind. I don’t sugarcoat things.”

The former congresswoman, Hawaii lieutenant governor and state representative who is running for re-election to her Senate seat in November, said she always has been outspoken as an advocate. “I’ve begun to do that even more these days because this administration, this president engages in outrageous behavior all the time,” she added. “So I have a lot of opportunities to be vocal and visible.”

Hirono said people have been thanking her for speaking her mind, including a woman lawyer who sat next to her on a flight into Washington, D.C., on Friday.

But her bluntness also has attracted critics.

“There are people who tell me I should drop dead,” Hirono said.

Here’s what conservative commentator Ann Coulter had to say about the Hawaii senator earlier this week on Twitter:

“Apart from people kicked in the head by a horse,” Coulter wrote, “name one human, ever, from the dawn of time, dumber than Sen. Mazie Hirono.”