NPR’s Ari Shapiro speaks with Kimberly Atkins of the Boston Herald and Bethany Mandel, editor of Ricochet, about the battle over Brett Kavanaugh, #MeToo and impacts on midterm elections.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Let’s take stock now of what this moment means for the American political system and society more broadly. For our regular Friday week in politics conversation, we are joined by Kimberly Atkins, chief Washington reporter and columnist for the Boston Herald. Good to have you back, Kimberly.
KIMBERLY ATKINS: Hi there.
SHAPIRO: And also Bethany Mandel joins us. She’s an editor of Ricochet and columnist for The Forward. Welcome to you.
BETHANY MANDEL: Hey. Thanks so much for having me.
SHAPIRO: This fight has been so divisive and bitter. Bethany, do you think it will leave a lasting mark on Congress?
MANDEL: I do. I found a lot of the conversations from Republicans about sort of how this played out with the fact that Feinstein’s office had these allegations for as long as they had them and sat on them – there was a lot of anger from folks that you don’t normally see anger from, particularly Lindsey Graham and Ben Sasse, who are sort of the more moderate, levelheaded Republicans. And there was a lot of past-tense use of, you know, we were friends; we used to work together. And I think this anger doesn’t go away for a while.
SHAPIRO: Kimberly, what do you think? Is the Senate going to be able to move on from this, or has it poisoned some of the relationships that lawmakers really need to get things done?
ATKINS: I mean, look; I think the partisanship that was happening that’s present in the Senate existed long before this confirmation battle. This certainly exacerbated it to a greater extent. We saw the pressure that was placed on the moderates in the Senate like Senator Collins, like Senator Manchin.
I would disagree that Senator Graham is still considered (laughter) one of the more levelheaded members of the Senate right now. He seems to be really, really a spokesperson basically for President Trump at this point. And that’s the role he’s served throughout this confirmation process. But the Senate is a tough place for moderates to be right now, and I think that only grows more so.
SHAPIRO: Looking beyond Congress, this controversy has prompted some women to share stories of abuse from years or decades ago. For example, newscaster Connie Chung told her story of sexual assault in The Washington Post this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CONNIE CHUNG: I, too, was sexually assaulted not 36 years ago but about 50 years ago. The molester was our trusted family doctor.
SHAPIRO: We’re now one year after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke and launched the #MeToo movement, and so I wonder what it is about this Kavanaugh-Ford debate that is making people speak out now who might not have told their stories after Weinstein or Bill Cosby or any of the others. Kimberly, what do you think?
ATKINS: Well, look. Talking to women who have called me, emailed me to tell their stories of sexual assault, which is happening with a lot of journalists lately, I think the idea that someone who is accused of this could reach a level of such power despite women coming forward and telling their stories about that – it’s really alarming to them. It’s not about – I mean, a lot of these women – we were talking the anger of women. These women weren’t angry.
They were more gutted that this could happen, that these stories – women – even if folks say, like Senator Collins said, that she…
