Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) raised the ire of protesters on Thursday after telling a group of mostly women who confronted him in one of the Senate buildings that he would talk to them when they “grow up.”
Video of the incident ricocheted around social media Thursday night, the latest in a string of confrontations reflecting the heated emotions coursing through the Capitol amid the fight over Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.
In the video, a group of protesters confronts Hatch, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has been front and center in the confirmation process, as he gets into an elevator in the Hart building. The video starts mid-confrontation, with the voice of a woman asking Hatch over a wall of staffers why he isn’t “brave enough” to talk to her and her group. Hatch waves his hand in midair.
“Don’t you wave your hand at me,” the woman says.
Hatch looks at her and says, “When you grow up, I’ll be glad to” talk to you. The comment incenses some of the protesters.
“How dare you talk to women that way?” one says.
Hatch waves at the group from the elevator as they continue yelling at him.
Kathy Beynette, the protester whose voice is the one predominantly heard in the video, said in an interview that she was deeply offended by Hatch’s remarks.
“I was like, ‘How dare you talk to a woman like this?’ ” she said. “ ‘When I grow up?’ No woman deserves to be talked to like that.”
She said the group had gone inside and stumbled upon Hatch and his retinue by happenstance. Still, she said she wanted to share her thoughts with him.
“I said in a very nice way, Senator Hatch, my dad — cause my dad would be his generation — my dad served in World War II and my son was a first responder on 9/11,” Beynette said.
It’s a good thing that Orrin Hatch is ancient because even the Utah senator might get voted out of office. Women are absolutely furious at some of these men who seem to forget that they are elected to the office they hold. I think its probably a bit of good advice to never tell a woman to “grow up.” That is the quintessential insult, especially to a woman in the above piece whose father fought in WWII and whose son was a first responder on 9/11. That woman is obviously not a spring chicken.
I am frankly surprised at many things I have heard men say and do since the Kavanaugh scandal surfaced. What jumps out at me is I simply don’t think many of the men realize just how at war with women they really are. This scandal will be just a blip on the radar down the road. Every time women in general are dismissed, patronized or trivialized, they come back stronger. Women are no longer going to sit back and, in the words of Tammy Wynette, stand by their man. The men who have made so many really horrible statements need to do some quick self-evaluation if they are going to get along in a post Christine Ford world.
Women now understand that they will no longer be able to count on the courts. Rights must be codifed.
And to my readers, no, I have not yet learned my lesson and I doubt if I will.
Impeach him!
That’s the Democrats solution to everything. Calls to impeach the individual, or abolish the organization.
So impeach Orin Hatch!
Says a member of a political party who went after a sitting president for impeachment…
Have there been other impeachments since Bill Clinton that were initiated by Democrats?
MoonHowler,
Says a member of a political party who went after a sitting president for impeachment…
Suborning perjury and lying under oath are impeachable offenses, for a sitting president. The Republicans didn’t spend 8 years threatening to impeach Obama, although I believe that Fast and Furious and the pallet of cash given to Iran to sweeten the nuke deal were both grounds for impeachment.
She must be believed!
Look at how many accusers there are. Something MUST have happened.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/parents-file-lawsuit-high-school-mean-girls-falsely-accused-son-sexual-assault-184805040.html
Steve Thomas,
A football coach/gym class teacher from my old high school was accused of inappropriate behavior. Google Ron Heller. They treated him like total trash. He cried while being interviewed by local television. It turned out he was totally innocent. He had disciplined one of the girls who got her friends together to falsely accuse him. The cops were good. They immediately detected inconsistencies in the girls’ stories, and one of the accusers eventually admitted to the ploy. Ron never returned to work. He quit.
Unlike Steve, though, I don’t pretend that this has anything to do with Orrin Hatch or Kav. It just reminds me of this sad story.
El Guapo, I am very very glad you brought this component of the problem up. Yes, people do make false accusations. Is Ron Heller the man who taught in Fairfax? His career was ruined because of a false accusation. The Duke lacrosse players, Jackie at UVA are all examples of of false accusations.
What do we do? Do we make all victims of sex assault go through the ringer because of a few? I say absolutely not. Unfortunately, we can’t always rely on DNA. I don’t know the answer but we absolutely need to be able to discuss it as a nation. The issue cannot be divided into 2 binary camps.
Here’s what we do. The alleged victim goes to law enforcement, and makes a complaint. Law enforcement opens an investigation and investigates. If there is enough evidence to charge, we charge. If not, we don’t. We remain skeptical of both the accused, and the accuser. Why? Because people do bad things. People lie about other people, and say they did bad things. We know both of these to be true, and should consider this as those we trust to investigate, actually investigate.
Here’s what we don’t do: Put the accuser in the hands of the media or politicians to be exploited. We don’t use mere accusation to destroy the accused. There is crime, justice, and politics. We need to keep crime and justice out of the political realm.
Interesting. Your solution certainly takes us back to the days of old. Usually a victim can be destroyed. On the other hand, I am going to suggest that the solution also would probably work better for white men, certainly not men of color.
I have no solutions. I just did not like Orrin Hatch’s tone or rhetoric.
Back in the old days, victims often by-passed the “going to law enforcement” stage of your plan. Who wants that kind of embarrassment?
What were you wearing? What did you say? Where were you? Were you drinking? Did you know your assailant? The list goes on….