09/24/18 09/24/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! the top democrat on the senate judiciary committee, dianne feinstein, is calling for the immediate postponement of the nomination for -- proceedings of supreme coururt nominee brett kavanaugh after a second woman has come forward alleging he sexually assaulted her. this comes as 1000 alumnae of the maryland prep school dr. blasey ford graduated from have

signed a letter in support of her saying there grateful she came forward. with alexiskk goldstein, who attended the high school dr. blasey ford did, and is spearheading the letter. we will also speak with professor barbara ransby, who adnched a black feminist campaign in 1991 in support of anita hill called "african american women in defense of ourselves." this came after hill was questioned by an all-male, all-white senate judiciary committee about her allegations clarence thomas sexually harassed her. determine trying to whether you are telling , i have got toot determine what your motivation

might be. woman?u a scorned amy: we will also speak with jodi jacobson, the editor in chief of rewire. all of that and more, coming up. wewelcome to democracy now!,!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the top democrat on the senate judiciary committee, dianne feinstein, is calling for the immediate postponement of the nomination proceedings of supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh h after a second womon came forward alleging sexual misconduct by the judge. a former classmatete of kavanaugh's at yale university has accused him of exposing himsmself and thrusting his pens into her face during a college party in a dorm room. the woman, deborah ramirez,

spoke on the record to "the new yorker magazine" and is now calling on the fbi to investigate her allegations. meanwhile, dr. christine blasey ford has agreed to testify before the senate judiciary committee on thursday about her allegations kavanaugh attempted to rape her when she was 15 years old. kavanaugh has denied both accusations. as part of his defense, kavanaugh has given the senate a copypy of his calendar from the summer of 1982, when he was in high school,l, which does not sw him attending any parties like the one described by christine blasey ford. but kavanaugh's own team acknowledged the newly unearthed calendar also does not disprove her allegations. on friday, president trump openly questioned dr. christine blasey ford's claim. he tweeted -- "if the attack on dr. ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local law enforcement authorities by either her or her loving parents."

we wilill have more on the kavanaugh nomination after headlines. the trump administration has announced a new crackdowown on immigrants applying for green cards to live and work in the united states. under the proposed new rules, applicants could be deninied grn cards if they hahave ever r used public assistance, including including food assistance or housing vouchers or received discounted prescription drugs through medicare part d. the national immigraration law center slammed the proposed rule change saying it would rig the nation's immigration system so green cards would only go to the highest bidder. the group said -- "this is a regulatory backdoor approach to separate more families." the mayor of los angeles eric garcetti vowed to fight the rule change saying -- "hundreds of thousands of our neighbors may be unable to see their doctors, keep a roof over their heads, or afford a trip to

the grocery store if they wish to remain in t the united d sta. that is simply wrong and un-american." "the new york times" is reporting deputy attorney general rod rosenstein suggested last year that he secretly record president trump in the white house to expose the turmoil insidede the administration following trump's firing of fbi director james comey. "the times" also reports rosenstein discussed recruiting cabinet memembers to invoke the 25th amendment to remove trump from office for being unfit. rosenstein, who oversees special counsel robert mueller's investigation of russian meddling in the 2016 election, called "the times" report inaccurate and factually incorrect. friday night trump suggested there were be more trying to the department of justice, saying a lingering stench" at the department.

a number of an sources say rosenstein was kidding when he talked about recording trump. inin news from iran, 29 people were killed and at least 70 wounded when four gunmen dressed in military uniform attacked a military parade in the southwestern city of ahvaz on saturday. the dead included military personnel, civilians, and a journalist. isis and a saudi-backed separatist group called ahvaz national resistance both claimed responsibility for the attack. the iranian president placed blame on the united states and gulf states, putting saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. >> the small puppet countries received the region are backed by america and the united states is revoking them and giving them a necessary capabilitieses to commit t these crimes. amy: tension between the united states and iran is escalating ahead of this week's u.n. general assembly where both rouhani and trump will speak.

on wednesday, trump is chairing a u.n. security council briefing on counter-proliferation. he is expected to use the meeting to single out iran. meanwhile, one of t trump's top attotorneys, rudolph giuliani, addressed an iranian opposition group called the national council of resistance of iran. the group is tied to the mek which was once considered a terrorist organization by the united states. giuliani openly backed the overthrow of the iranian govevernment. >> we don't know when we are going to overthrow them. it could be in a few days, months, a couple of years, but it is going to happen. they are going to be overthrown. amy: in environmental news, the waterkeeper alliance is calling for more stringent national and state regulations on coal ash after a massive coal ash spill last week sent toxic waste into the cape fear river near

wilmington, north carolina. the spill occurred after a dam was breached following hurricane florence. the storm caused several other coal ash spills in north carolina. in news from latin america, secretary of state mike pompeo has warned the trump administration is preparing a "series of actions" in the coming days to increase pressure on the venezuelan government. pompeo said -- "we're determined to ensure that the venezuelan people get their say." earlier this month, "the new york times" revealed trump administration officials held multiple secret meetings with rebel venezuelan military officers last year to discuss possible plans to overthrow venezuelan president nicolas maduro. pompeo's comment came just ahead of the annual u.n. general assembly in new york. it remains unclear if maduro will attend. president trump will address the session today. in news from europe, around 20,000 people marched in the

swiss capital of bern on saturday, demanding equal pay for women and protesting against discrimination. the protest came as the swiss parliament is considering legislation to require all companies with more than 100 workers to analyze pay rates to ensure there is no discrimination between the salaries of men and women. swiss protesters vowed more demomonstrations in sasalary -- if salary inequality continues. >> i think the message is pretty clear. as long as we don't have salary inequality, as long as no sentient are being taken or no salary made regarding equality, we will go out on the streets. amy: in texas, republican senator ted cruz and democratic challenger congressman beto o'rourke held their r first debe on friday and clashed on a number of issues, including criminal justice reform, president trump, and immigration. beto o'rourke vowed to protect

dreamers from deportation. peopleere is no better than those of us here in the state. republicans and democrats them independents alike. the defining immigrant experience in state to rewrite our immigration laws in our own image. and to ensure that we begin by freeing dreamers from the fear of deportation i making them u.s. citizens so they can contribute to the full potential to the success, not just of themselves and their families, but to this country. amy: senator ted cruz vowed to do more to crack down on undocumented immigrants. >> this issue presents a stark divide between congressman o'rourke and me. my views on immigration are simple, and i have summed them up many times and just four words. illegal, bad. i think the fast majority of texans agree with that. i think when it comes to immigration, we need to do everything humanly possible to secure the border.

that means building a wall, that means technology, infrastructure, that means boots on the ground. amy: and comedian bill cosby will be back in court today for the beginning of a two-day sentencing hearing. he faces up to 30 years in prison. in april, a jury found cosby guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting andrea constand, the former director of operations for the women's basketball team at temple university. constand is one of about 60 women who have accused cosby of sexual assaults dating back decades. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the top democrat on the senate judiciary committee, diannee feinstein, is calling for the immediate postponement of the nomination proceedings of supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh after a second woman has come forward alleging sexual assault by the judge. a former classmate of

kavanaugh's at yale university has accused him of exposing himself and d thrusting his pens into her face during a college party in a dorm room. the woman, deborah ramirez, spoke on the record to "the new yorker magazine" and is now calling on the fbi to investigate her allegations. "the n new yorker" revealeled republican senate aides learned of ramirez's allegations last week a and responded by tryingno quicklkly move kavanaugh's nomination ahead before the allegations became public. this comes as dr. christine blasey ford has agreed to testify before the senate judiciary committee on thursday about her allegations that kavanaugh attempted to rape her when she was 15 years old. he was 17 years old. kavanaugh has denied both accusations. on friday, president trump openly question dr. christine blasey ford's claim. he tweeted -- if the attack on dr. ford was as

bad as she said, charges would have been immediately filed with local law enforcement authorities by either her or her loving parents." of the the presesident united states, president trump, who himself has been accused by many women of sexually assaulting or harassing them. but more than 1100 alumnae of the holton-arms school, the maryland prep school that blasey ford graduated from in 1984, have signed a letter in support of her, saying they are grateful that she came forward to tell her story. in a minute, we will speak with , anrson, alexis goldstein alum, who spearheaded the letter. at first, we're joined in new york by jojodi jacobson, presidt and editor in chief of rewire. her latest piece is headlined "gop wants 'aunt lydia' and attack-dog staffer to question dr. blasey ford." welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us.

theserevelations, exposes, these allegations are coming out one after another. there's even a third. we he will talk about that in a moment. but talk about the latest "new yorker" piece about the second woman who has come out after dr. blasey ford accused judge kavanaugh of attempting to rape her. >> as you mentioned, deborah andrez talked to jane mayor ronan farrow at "the new yorker" to tell her story of having been at a party where there was a lot of joking and where during that party, she remembers having someone take down their pants, face, andpenis in her force her to touch it. she could not remember exactly.. she had taken some time to talk with other people before she came forward to make sure that

her memories coordinated -- not coordinated, but corroborated with there's. when she did come forward, she said she remembered one flash of memory was that brett kavanaugh was pulling his pants up. as who is laughing at her after having thrust his penis in her face. here's another person who is coming forward into really a maelstrom of political debate around a man who has credible allegations from dr. blasey ford and the senate gop judiciary committee refuses to investigate either of these at this point. i think it warrants an fbi investigation because if you really want to know the truth -- anand i don't thinink the gop ds -- then you would do an investigation before you see to the man on the highest court. if you made clear that s sexual assault and sexual harassment were serious crimes that you

took seriously, you would do in fbi investigation. amy: to deborah ramirez then went on to spend years working with assault victims with domestic violence survivors. she lives in colorado. also, like dr. chriristine blasy ford, very hesitant to come forward. >> very hesitant. as would anyone be because you are talking about a long time ago. you're talking about people who are very prominent in washington circles. and you're also talking about the attack machine that has brains of dollars to put against you. we just talked last week -- one of the gop consultants, who is edociated with the firm that will and i is associated with, e lawyer who last week floated this ridiculous aerie that it was a doppelganger of kavanaugh who actually attacked dr. blasey ford, he floated that on twitter

and later apologized. this guy is associated with ed whelen and the firm. he was found to have sexually harassed someone and was fired his previous job. amy: and explain who he was working for. he was a consultant with -- >> a consultant with the judiciary committee, working with the same pr firm, let's say, -- there is no interconnected right-wing committee occasions attack machine here. dear entry had been himself fired from his p previous job de to sexual harassment. almost invariably, every time you overturn a rock, there are some guy associated with the white house announced the heaearings, who is been involved in sexual harassment. amy: explain who mike davis is. >> mike davis -- and i wrote about this in the piece you referenced.

he's the chief counsel for the gop, the senate gop judiciary. grassley. it was beingy -- floated last report for public hearing was agreed to, this idea "at chuck grassley would have fair, private" questitioning period with christine blasey ford in california. he was going to send his staffers other to interviview hr in private, then come e back wih a judgment on whether or not s e was sayingng something, you kno, saying whether or not she could be credible. so what she was doing effectively was suggesting he was in his chief counsel out to california to privately interview dr. blasey ford and come back with whatever he decided. this is a guy that last week at the same time that he was being floated as the person to interview her, tweeted "we will confirm kavanaugh." partials is not in n a

personnel were sending out -- impartial person there were sending out to question christine blasey ford. if you care about sexual assault and harassment, you have an impartial hearing and an impartial investigation. and there is not a single shred of evidence that the gop wants that impartial investigation. amy: and the dr. christine was a ford -- dr. christine blasey ford, what she is agree to them with the senate leadership, grassley and other republican senators, have not yet agreed to, she will be there with security. she does not want the man she alleges attempted to rape her, brett kavanaugh, in the room at any point t with her. what has not been agreed to is who will question her. she says she wants the senators to question her. this is a problem for republican senators on the judiciary committee. they are all male.

they don't want those optics. it is said they want a female lawyer to question her and d she is saying she does not accept that. >> right. it is a constitutional duty of the senators on the judiciary committee to conduct the questioning. and the reason they don't want to be in front of the camera on this is because a couple of them are holdovers from the anita hill hearing, and they treated her very poorly, as you may well remember in watching those tapes , which is gutwrenching. they do not want to be the public face. they want to put what i call an aunt lydia, a woman, who is meant to sort of, you know, take on another woman in support of the patriarchy. somehey think somehowow, in twisted analysis, this makes them look better. it does not make them look better. it makes them look afraid. amy: we're going to go to a 30 second break and come back and be joined byg.

she is racing to the supreme court. the really major protests around the country today, kind of walked out. she will be e protesting at the supreme coururt step jodi jacobn will stay with us, president and editor in chief of rewire. we will link to her piece "gop wants 'aunt lydia' and attack-dog staffer to question dr. blasey ford." ♪ [sisic brk] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. continue with the

allegations against supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh as a second woman has come forward accusing him of sexual misconduct. deborah ramirez accusing him of exposing himself and thrusting hispenis interface while there were both students at yale. the new yorker magazine" in a piece just revealed last night. ramirez is now calling on the fbi to investigate her accusations. this comes as s dr. christine blasey ford has agreed to testify before the senate judiciary committee on thursday, 10:00 a.m. eastern time, about her allegations that kavanaugh attempted to rape her when she was 15 and he 17 years old. more than 1100 alumnii of the holtlton-arms school, the e mard prep school that b blasey ford graduated from i in 1984, have signed a letter in support of her sexual assault comes against president trump's supreme court nominee judge brett kavanaugh. they say they are grateful that she came forward to tell her

story. in the letter they write -- "it demands a thorough and independent investigation before the senate can reasonably vote on brett kavanaugh's nomination to a lifetime seat on the nation's highest court. dr. blasey ford's experience is all too consistent with stories we heard and lived while attending holton. many of us are survivors ourselves." they deliver the letter last week to republican senator shelley moore capito of west virginia, who also graduated from the holton-arms school. for more, we're joined in washington, d.c., by alexis goldstein, one of the holton-arms school alumni who helped organize this letter campaign to support christine blasey ford. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. i know you are racing off to the supreme court. tell us about this letter you spearheaded. >> i was with a group of six women who attended holton arms. five of them wrote a letter very quickly. i was impressed with them.

we as a community, a large number of us, we really wanted to say that we stood with dr. christine blasey ford and that we recognize her bravery in coming forward. this is coming a great personal cost to her, as folks have seen reported, she is been forced to move out of her home, facing death threats. i think those of us in the holton-arms me to the who signed a letter wanted to say dr. blasey ford, we have your back and we stand with you and we believe you and we know how incredibly difficult this is, in your so great and we are here for you. amy: explain what you're referring to in this letter when you talk about holton-arms and the atmosphere of the time. again, judge kavanaugh attended georgetownwn prep, which was a male prep school nearby. >> i think what dr. blasey ford described resonated a lot with the holton-arms community. it is not just about the holton-arms community. pretty much any woman in america, this resonates with them.

any person in america, whether your survivor yourself, you probably know when whether you know what are not. sexual assault knows noo polititical party. it is not just something that happens at prep schools. it happens everywhere. just like anywhere else or any other school, members of the holton-arms community, some of us, and portland, are familiar with this so we know how difficult it is to come forward. we know how much bravery it took her. we wanted to stand with her and say, don't mess with h her and that we have h her back. amy: there was another letter that was just her graduating class come a christine blasey ford's class? >> the class of 1984 did their own separate letter. i believe there were 24 signers the last time i checked, but there might have been more since then. we linked to their letter on the website for our letter. independently, but we just asked permission to link to the letter. amy: how did you deleliver the letter to congress member capito , who also went to your school?

she is also an alum of holton-arms. >> we wanted to make sure every alum named about this. we wanted to give everyone an opportunity to sign. julia louis-dreyfus signed. christine lagarde is alumni. we continue to invite her. and senator capito. we wanted to make sure she saw the letter and had an invitation to sign up. we went to her office last thursday and hand-delivered a letter to the front desk. senator capito was not in the office at the e time, but we asd her staff to pass along and if they would like to meet with us in the future to hear our invitation. personally, we would be happy to do that. we wanted to make sure that the senator knew about the existence of the letter and invite her like we invite every holton-arms alumnae to sign. do: what did senator capito the letter and has she responded to you all since?

you are sister alum, after all. >> i don't know with the senator has them with thehe letter, bute have been in communication briefly with her staff. at least one member of her staff knows and a front desk is aware of the letter, but we're not spoken to the senatoror. amy: and why are you heading right away to the supreme court? explain what is happening today in the united states. >> i think this is a moment to say this is not 1991. and that survivors must be heard and they must be believed. i just want to be there on the supreme court steps today personally to show my support for christine blasey ford and say we have her back, to have the back of all survivors. i think this is an opportunity to do one better than what happened with anita hill also although,1 as was mentioned earlier in your previous segment, there has not been an fbi investigation. that is one of the things our letter calls for is there to be in fbi investigation. the holton-arms community wanted

to echo dr. blasey ford's call for an investigation. i think that is something the senate should do. i personally wanted to be there on the steps of the supreme court this morning to continue to stem with dr. blasey ford and a go her call for an investigation. amy: alexis, your response to dr. -- dianne feinstein now calling for a hold on the confirmation proceedings of judge kavanaugh with the second person coming forward? lawyer fornatti, the stormy daniels, is alleging that there may be a third woman who will be coming forward. >> in our letter, we always called for a thorough and independent investigation. just as before, it is as good of a time as any. it seems right to me personally that we should slow down. there is no rush here. let's do an investigation and let's air all of the stores and let all of these survivors be heard and be believed. amy: a lot is being talked about

about the atmosphere of these schools. we know about mark judge who dr. christine ford wanted to testify. she alleges he was the third person in the room at the time that she says kavanaugh attempted to rape her. and it was only when judge jumped on top of the two of them and they tumbled to the floor that she was able to escape from underneath kavanaugh, as she ,aid he was holding her mouth trying to prevent her from screaming. kavanaugh was. and she was able to escape. but this book he wrote about his high school years, about georgetown prep that is called "wasted: tales of a gen x dr unk," the atmosphere there describing and what we hear in the latest "the new yorker magazine" that ramirez said happen her when kavanaugh was 18

at yale. talk more about that. >> i don't think any of this is unique to any one individual school. i don't think -- it is not unique to holton-arms. y i was not a student atale. unfortunately, sexual assault happens everywhere. it is an issue that is deeply personal for folks. he deserves serious consideration and to be taken seriously. when survivors come forward, they're doing so at immense personal cost. as we saw last week with the #whyididn'tcomeforward, it is not specific to any one institution. underage tracking happens all across the country. unfortunately sexual assault happens everywhere. i think this is a problem that we as a country need to think about and contend with. but again, the most important

thing in the focus i believe of the whole holton-arms -- community letter was, dr. blasey ford, we stand with you, we believe with you, there needs to be a thorough and independent investigation. amy: alexis, 1100 women signed this letter. talk about this number. what are the class sizes at holton-arms? >> holton-arms is a very small school. i would say it is about 80 to 100. the farther you go back in time, the smaller those class sizes are. so 1100 women on the letter is a very, very large chunk of our community. this is not a small portion of our community. this is a very significant chunk. so it shows you just how large of a presence within the holton-arms community there is standing with dr. blasey ford and d saying we supporort you. amy: alexis, thank you for being with us. who are the other people who will be a front of the supreme court today as you head off? >> i believe there's is a slew of organizations. to be honest i just saw this on twitter so i just wanted to be

there in person with them. i want to show my support. this multiple groups. alexis, this is the seventh anniversary of occupy. you were very involved with occupy wall street and really ininvolved with giving economic analysis to the economic meltdown that took place. i was wondering how you can for the occupy movement to what we're seeing today, the whole #m etoo movement around this country, specially that is expressing support like your school has. by the way, has the management of the school expressed support for dr. ford? but if you could compare the two. >> i will say briefly that the head of the holton-arms school did issue a statement saying they were proud of dr. blasey ford for coming forward. i was a part of occupy, someone who worked on wall street. i have first-hand knowledge of what it was like to work on wall

street. i worked on wall street for seven years. in some years, i will get that is a parallel, the #metoo movement is about women and survivors in expensing sexual assault and speaking the truth about what happened to them. for me personally, it is the main parallel just about folks with personal experience coming forward and saying, here is my truth. iwould say the other parallel suppose is just people standing up and speaking their beliefs and trying to say this is how we want to build a better world, whether it is a better world that has more economic fairness or a world without sexual assault. amy: alexis goldstein, zinke so much. holton-arms school alum who is one of the women whoho spearhead 1100ter now signed by holton-arms alone, that went to west virginia senator capito, who o is also a holton-arms schl

alum. we will turn back now to jodi jacobson. then we will turn to professor barbara ransby in chicago, who is involved with support for anita hill in 1991. jodi jacobson, president and editor of rewire, they're so much to talk about here, so much news has come out. in "the new yorker" piece that came out last night that detailed the accusations of the second woman to say that brett kavanaugh, in his first year at yale, sexually assaulted her, pushed his genitals in her face, humiliating her and assaulting her -- and that same piece is a 'sote from mark judge girlfriend. mark judge was a friend of kavanaugh and wrote the book

"wasted" about his high school years. and there's a person called bart a thinlygh, which is veiled reference to his friend. in "the new yorker" piece, saids elizabeth that she -- she had no knowledge but was disturbed by the story and noted it undercut judge's protestations about the sexual innocence of georgetown prep. she stressed in her normal circumstances, i would not reveal information that was told in confidence but she said, i can't stand by and watch him lilie. judgege and brett kavanaugh a believe are still friends. they have been friends for a very long time.

mark judge has written prolifically, not just in the one book you mention, but in others, about how his alcoholism throughout his teen years and was you know, wild his life . he has refused to come and testify on the senate judiciary committee. gop has refused to test a -- subpoena him. he has been identified as having told this woman's stories of what are effectively gang rapes. a the story is told, they get woman drunk and gang rape her. alone merits investigation. i think it is part of the reason judge does not want to come before the committee because he would be under oath and be questioned about these things. and he has got his own lengthy written record of all of these activities. i think also, you know you have this can by michael of an already -- michael of a naughty. i don't know if he is actual

evidence or if you try to get into a drum on this. i don't know. amy: you are talkingng about michael evan not he. the lawyer for stormy daniels. this is the list of questions that he says should be asked of brett kavanaugh. these were released in a series of e email c had with the person you are talking about earlier, mike d davis, the e staffer on e senate judiciciary committee. this is what he says should be asked of judge kavanaugh. one, did you ever target one or more women for sex or rape at a house party. to joe versus mark judge or others in doing so? two, did you ever attend any house party during which a woman was gang raped for used for multiple men? witness a you ever line of men outside a bedroom at

any house party were you understood woman was in the bedroom being raped or taken advantage of? four, digital ever dissipate in sexual conduct with a woman at house party in the understood to be intoxicated or under the influence? five, did you ever train"it with judge in a " involving intoxicated women? six, did you ever object or a temp to prevent one or more men from participating in the rate for taking advantage of a woman at any house party? these are the questions michael avenatii sza senators must ask. >>'s uncorroborated. he is not brought forth any person. it connects back to the story that was told in "the new yorker" and other pieces and other reporting around kavanaugh at yell. he was part of a fraternity that was known for very heavy drinking. it had a somewhat -- i won't repeat the name on tv, but it is

sort of colloquial name was buried offensive to women. he is part of the fraternity that marched around sayaying no means yes and yes means anal and used to walk around with a flag made of women's underwear and bras. his life trajectory -- joint amy: the all-m-male secret sociy was truth encourage. referred to as c an insult to women. here thatgger pattern if you were really interested in investigating, let's just remind ourselves that brett kavanaugh does not have a great till of great deal anyway -- of credibility anyway. several people knowleledgeable about his testimony on other issues have claimed that he perjured himself, like lisa graves, who was chief counsel during thehe time he was at the white house.

that was during the bush administration. he somehow pulled up calendars from high school this weekend and could not find enough that oncopied -- h he was copied doing his relationship with judge kosinski, who was widely known for harassing women and sending pornographic material around to his clerks. so there are very selective memories goioing on here. talk about selective memory? kavanaugh seems to have a very selective memory. amy: there so much that continues to be revealed. i want to thank you for coming, especially our condolenceses on the death of your brbrother. thank you for coming here in this difficult time. jodi jacobson is president and editor in chief of rewire. we will link to her latest piece "gop wants 'aunt lydia' and attack-dog staffer to question dr. blasey ford." this is democracy now! when we come back, we will be

joined by a professor, professor barbara ransby, who will talalk about her role in gaining support, particularly of african american women, for anita hill, back during the anita hill-clarence thomas hearings. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. news that dr. christine blasey ford will testify thursday about her sexual assault allegation against president trump's supreme court nominee judge brett kavanaugh have prompted warnings for senators not to repeat the same mistakes made during the confirmation process of judge clarence thomas in 1991, when anita hill was questioned by y an all-male, all-white senate judiciary committee about her allegations that thomas sexually harassed her when he was her supervisor. this is republican senator

heflin questioning anita hill in 1991. determine trying to whether you are telling , i've got to not determine what your motivation might be. are you a scorneded woman? amy: former vice president joe biden has been sharply criticized for hisole in questioning ananita hill as char of the senate judiciary committee back in 1991. >> tell the committee, what was the most embarrassing of all of the incidences that you have alleged? >> i think the one that was most embarrassing was the discussion involving these

women with large breasts and engaged in a variety of sex with different people or animals. that was the thing that embarrassed me the most t and me me feel the most humiliated. amy: so that was then senator biden questioning anita hill. she was also questioned by sesenator -- well, the late senator arlen specter. >> you testify this morning in response to senator bididen that the most embarrassing question involved -- this is not too bad -- women's large breasts. that is a word we use all the time. that was the most embarrassing aspect of what judge thomas had said you will stop >> no. the most and piercing aspect was

his description of the acts of these individual -- these women. amy: in the weeks after that hearing, black feminist organized a manifesto titled "african american women in defense of ourselves" that was signed by nearly 1600 women who raised $50,000 to publish it as an ad in "the new york times." it read in part -- "we are particularly outraged by the racist and sexist treatment of professor anita hill, an african american woman who was maligned and castigated for daring to speak publicly of her own experience of sexual abuse. the malicious defamation of professor hill insulted all women of african descent and sent a dangerous message to any woman who might contemplate a sexual harassment complaint."

that was 1991.1. now anita hill has issued a statement on the sexual allegations against brett kavanaugh, writing -- "given the seriousness of these allegations, the government needs to find a fair and neutral way for complaints to be investigated. i have seen firsthand what happens when such a process is weaponized." in a moment, we're going to go to chicago where we are joined by barbara ransby, who was one of the initiators of african american women in defense of ourselves in 1991. she is now a professor of african american studies, gender and women's studies and history at the university of illinois, chicago. she is author of the award winning biography "ella baker and the black freedom movement," and now a new book just out titled "making all black lives

matter: reimagining freedom in the twenty-first century." we're going to go to break and then we will come back. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in a moment, we're going to go to professor barbara ransby, involved with the anita hill hearings. but i wanted to go back to jodi jacobson for a momoment, presidt and editor in chief of rewire. news. "gop wantsbeats , 'aunt lydia' and attack-dog staffer to question dr. blasey ford." dr. christine blasey ford has agreed to testify at 10:00 thursday morning, 10:00 eastern standard time, before the senate judiciary committee. i want to ask you one last question. rewire particularly focuses on rupert at their rights. i wanted ask you about what you

see as the connection, if you see there's a connection, between, welcome to what kavanaugh is being accused of and also his views on issues like roe v. wade and was surprised many in hearings, talking about contraceptives as drugs that i induce abortions. >> well, as we all know, it is been a project for 40 years of the far right to get rid of roe v. wade and eliminate abortion in this country. if you recall, trump's promise on the campaign trail to put judges on the court that would do that. kavanaugh has a very solid record of being against abortion rights. he was the sole judge that tried to stop a young girl from getting an abortion who was in an immigrant girl in custody. he was overridden, but he personally tried to stop that abortion from happening.

he is very anti-choice. he also repeated a right-wing talking point, which is that contraception, which prevents pregnancy -- so cannot be -- you can't have an abortion if you're not pregnant -- that contraception is -- this is the original fake new system is the right wing anti-choice movement. they have used so much fake information. it is not science. it is s fake information. theyey use it as a sort of counr to real science and evidence around abortion and contraception. and by repeating that trope, he shows exactly how little he knows and how ideological he is about what the cdc calls one of the greatest publilic health achievements of the past century, which is contraception. ande is her anti-choice anti-contraception. amy: i'm going to go right now back to chicago where we have

jujust hookeked up by satelliteh historian barbara ransby. she is the person who helped organize t the letter or the movement called african american women in defense of ourselves, a proclamation that was published in "the new york times" in november of 1991, reading -- "we are particularly outraged by the racist and sexist treatment of professor anita hill, an african american woman who was maligned and castigated for daring to speak publicly of her own experience of sexual abuse. we are joined by professor ransby now. if you can take as back to 1991, as we just heard alexis goldstein talking about organizing 1100 women of dr. christine blasey ford's alma mater and high school, what you did back with anita hill and why you did it. myself, elsa barkley

brown, and deborah king, organized an ad campaign. it was really in response to what you are ready described as the outrageous, what we thought was the outrageous treatment of dr. hill before the senate judiciary committee. we wanted d to say we believed her. we also wanted to put her statement in a larger context of sexism and racism that black women experienced. and we did this before the internet, so we got letters, we had a 1-800 phone line. we really reached far and wide. i think many people were watching the spectacle of those hearings and were outraged by it. we wanted to give voice to that rage. we wanted to insert our voices as blalack feminist into a publc discourse. so we wanted to put the ad -- we put it in "the new york times" and several african american newspapers as well. and then an organization called we do group out of that and

lasted for several years, engaged in various work around gender justice. with a lot of similarities this case. there are some obvious differences. christine blasey ford is alleging actual sexual assault. anita hill was alleging, and we believe her. i believe christine blasey ford. but the difference between harassment and sexual assault is a significant one. the racial and class backgrounds of the accuser and the accused is different. of course, it is 27 years later. so all of the things are part of my reaction to this, but heroic#metoo and the work of summoning women organizers for so many years, patriarchy and misogyny are still alive and well and we see a playing out in how these stories are being retold. it also and how the republican senators are behaving with moreicism and concern

about objects than substance. amy: people may not realize it was the senate judiciary committee in 1991 that was led by senator joe biden. it was a democratic majority senate judiciary committee. the republicans don't want to repeat the optics of. christine blasey ford pushing hard to be questioned by the senators. all of the current senate republicans on the senate judiciary committee are white men. there are four democratic women on the senate judiciary committee. of course, is republican. if you could talk about what anita hill was up against. they want a woman lawyer today to be the questioner of dr. ford , representing the republicans. >> right. before, i as i said think it is more concerned with the optics, which in the case of anita hill, was so powerful to have this panel of white men

looking down upon her, asking her intrusive, embarrassing, .resumptuous questions questioning if she was in her right mind later. whole number of things. are you a woman scorn was probably the ultimate low point. but i also -- amy: by heflin. folks i think joe biden has expressed regret about the way he handled the hearing. there were other witnesses rescinding ready to corroborate anita hill's allegations who were not allowed to testify. i think that is something to consider, worth considering in this case is well. optics are concerned. i want to say that it is outrageous what happened -- what women are alleging happened 35 years ago at georgetown prep and more recently at yale in terms of kavanaugh, but what is also outrageous is the same disbelief of the senators. i don't think for one minute

that they find it implausible that these kinds of things happen. they are so pervasive. one in six women experience some form of sexual assault. trying to create a scenario where they are not hovering above this woman, appearing to be interrogating her, you know, i think that is a political move. it is an opportunistic move. they are concern with the ththeatrics of this. but t i also think in their heat of hearts, their as familiar as all of us are with these kinds of instances of sexual assault and sexual harassment, particularly privileged men being insulated from the consequences of their action. so the outrage, the fiend outrage, the same disbelief, i think is also a part of thehe te ethics. professor,stingly, you have several of the senators involved with questioning anita hill in 1991 who are on the committee today, namely, senator

grassley, also senator patrick leahy of vermont who asked anita hill what she is again by testifying against clarence thomas. >> right. 27 years later, and i think it is three of them are still there. amy: orrin hatch as well, who sang no matter what happens, he believes kavanaugh. >> i know. what an outrageous thing to say. the same kinds of questions are being asked. why did she wait? why didn't you report it right away? anyone remotely familiar with the pattern of sexual assault know how hard it is for women to come forward, for survivors to come forward. many people simply swallow the pain. many women are fearful of the consequences of coming forward. were evenators slightly familiar with the literature on this, they would certainly know that. but that is an echo of 1991 as

well. amy: dr. christine blasey ford has made very clear she wants the fbi to investigate. "i" stands for in fbi. anita hill did have an fbi investigation. it lasted for three days. >> right. i'm not a big fan of the fbi, but in this case, certainly, i fbi investigation is warranted. there was an fbi investigation with anita hill. i think anita hill made a very strong, persuasive, incredible arguments and told a story that was very compelling in terms of what happened to her, vis-a-vis, clarence thomas. he believed her. we have been borne out. but the other thing i want to say is in this atmosphere of donald trump, i think that is another significant change. when you have someone who is an amended sexual predator in the

white house, republican senators can tolerate trump, they can certainly prepare to defend and tolerate the kinds of actions that brett kavanaugh -- john amy: this is part one of our discussion. barbara ransby as a new book out called "making all like lives matter."