Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) participated in a demonstration against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday afternoon, hours after senators were permitted to view the FBI report produced from the investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Warren spoke to a cheering crowd of hundreds in front of a D.C. federal courthouse.
“Hello, Resistance!” she began, referencing the “Resistance” movement against President Trump. “Today is about disrespect.”
{mosads}”I watched that hearing last Thursday and I believe Dr. [Christine Blasey] Ford,” she said. Ford, the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault, publicly testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week about her allegation that Kavanaugh held her down and tried to remove her clothing during a high school party in 1982. Kavanaugh has denied her allegation, as well as accounts from two other women accusing him of sexual misconduct in the 1980s.
“I watched that hearing last Thursday and Brett Kavanaugh is disqualified,” Warren continued.
The demonstration, which has been in the works for weeks, was organized by multiple progressive and women’s groups including Women’s March, Center for Popular Democracy, Black Women’s Roundtable and Moms Rising.
Many attendees held protest signs with messages in support of sexual assault survivors. “Believe women,” multiple signs read. “Unfit to serve,” read others over an image of Kavanaugh.
“We know what this is about – this is about power,” Warren said. “I watched 11 men, powerful men, who tried to help another powerful man make it to an even more powerful position.”
One of the Women’s March co-chairs, Linda Sarsour, held up a thumbs-down as she stood next to Warren.
“Let’s be clear about this,” Warren said. “I am angry. I own it. I am angry, on behalf of women who have been told to sit down and shut down, one time too many.”
“I am angry because of everyone who has lost power,” she said. “African-Americans who don’t have power in this city, Latinos who don’t have power here in Washington.”
Other speakers included student representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Women’s March. Rep. Don Beyer Jr. (D-Va.), chair of the Men for Women Caucus also attended, along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
One of the speakers was Ana Maria Archilla, famous for confronting Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) in an elevator last week. “We’re overcoming our fear and our pain and our rage to give this country an opportunity to be different. That’s what this nomination is about,” said Archilla, a director with the Center for Popular Democracy. “The reckoning is here. This movement is not going anywhere.”
Warren said this week that the Kavanaugh hearings reinforced her decision to consider a presidential bid in 2020.
The demonstrators marched from Constitution Avenue to the Capitol on Thursday afternoon as senators made statements in response to the FBI report, which they were allowed to see for the first time in the morning.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the report did not find corroboration of of sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, while Senate Democrats slammed the report as “incomplete” and “limited.”
Republicans are hoping to hold an initial vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday.
Rachel Cohen contributed.
Updated at 7:54 p.m.