Former Obama White House communications director Jen Psaki went after Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for supporting Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
“She struck a nerve to me in what she said and how she voted, because that’s political cowardice,” Psaki said on a panel on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “That is somebody who is pretending to be a feminist but that is fake feminism.”
“You can argue Democrats mishandled things, they certainly did,” she added.{mosads}
“But this is about a woman who is accusing someone of sexual assault, something that often many, many women do not come forward to do,” Psaki said.
Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party in the summer of 1982.
Kavanaugh has unequivocally denied Ford’s allegation.
Collins, in her speech explaining her vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation on the Senate floor Saturday, as well as in comments she made earlier Sunday, said she found Ford to be credible, but that there was not sufficient evidence to meet the “more likely than not” standard.
Psaki said Sunday that those people who worry about men being condemned without sufficient evidence misunderstand the problems facing America.
“It’s much more likely that women hold back and they don’t put these accusations forward than they don’t. That is the issue in this country, not being falsely accused,” Psaki said, adding that it is “absolutely irresponsible” to weigh the risks to men and women posed by Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Psaki said that Collins was “trying to have it all ways.”
“You can’t say somebody is credible and then completely question their story,” she argued.