Nearly half of Americans say they believe that public treatment of those accused of sexual harassment has gone too far, according to a new American Barometer survey.
The poll, conducted by Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling company, found that 47 percent of respondents said public treatment of those accused of sexual harassment has gone too far, while 35 percent called the public treatment “largely fair and appropriate.”
Eighteen percent of respondents said they were unsure or didn’t know.
The poll comes days after Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice after facing sexual misconduct allegations from three women.
President Trump, during a White House ceremony on Monday, apologized to Kavanaugh “for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure.”
Kavanaugh and the first woman to publicly accuse him of sexual misconduct, Christine Blasey Ford, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month, a week before the then-nominee was ultimately confirmed.
Ford detailed her accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party in 1982, when they were both in high school. Kavanaugh forcefully denied the allegation in a subsequent testimony before the panel. He also denied the sexual misconduct allegations levied against him by Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick.
“Both men and women in polling believe Dr. Blasey Ford. They believe that she was giving a truthful and honest testimony. They believed that she had experienced this,” Democratic pollster Molly Murphy told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.” “This is an incredibly complicated and uncomfortable topic for people to confront.”
The American Barometer survey was conducted on Oct. 6 and 7 among 1,000 registered voters. Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 6.
The sampling margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
— Julia Manchester
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