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'I wanted him to feel my rage': protesters tell of Jeff Flake lift confrontation 'I saw myself in Dr Ford's words': protesters tell of Jeff Flake elevator confrontation
(about 5 hours later)
The two women who helped alter the course of American legal history by staging an impromptu protest in a Washington lift have revealed they were driven by memories of private trauma and inspired by the courage of Christine Blasey Ford. The two women who helped alter the course of American legal history by staging an impromptu protest in a Washington elevator have said they were driven by memories of private trauma and inspired by the courage of Dr Christine Blasey Ford.
New Yorkers Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher loudly berated Senator Jeff Flake for planning to back Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the supreme court on Friday, influencing him to alter his view. Afterwards they spoke of their personal motivations for cornering him in the Senate offices. Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher of New York loudly berated Senator Jeff Flake for planning to back Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the supreme court on Friday, influencing him to alter his view and call for an FBI investigation, which the White House then ordered.
Archila, a 39-year-old from Queens, has disclosed that she was assaulted at the age of five. Kavanaugh, 53, is accused of sexually attacking Ford 36 years ago. He denies the accusation. In his own testimony to the Senate judiciary committee on Thursday, he angrily rejected the allegation as a political attack by Democrats. Ford testified prior to Kavanaugh, capturing the attention of a nation.
“I wanted [Flake] to feel my rage,” she said. “I believe Judge Kavanaugh is dangerous for women.” After their moment in the spotlight, Archila and Gallagher spoke of their personal motivations for cornering Flake in the Senate offices. Gallagher, a 23-year-old from Westchester, New York, said she had never told anyone about the assault she suffered. Archila, a 39-year-old from Queens, has disclosed that she was assaulted at the age of five.
Archila, a co-director at the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), a not-for-profit advocacy group that campaigns for an “inclusive, equitable society”, and her fellow protester, Gallagher, have been hailed as heroines by Democrats and by international supporters of the #MeToo movement for persuading the Republican senator, at the eleventh hour, to call for a week-long FBI investigation before Kavanaugh’s nomination was agreed. Kavanaugh, 53, has been accused of sexually attacking Dr Christine Blasey Ford 36 years ago. Speaking to the BBC, Archila said she wanted Flake to “feel my rage”, as she believes “Judge Kavanaugh is dangerous for women”. On Saturday, she spoke to the Guardian.
“If it was just my story and Maria’s story it would not have made a difference. It was the fact that it was thousands of women’s stories,” Archila said on Saturday. “As we were waiting outside [Flake’s office],” she said, “we found out he put out a statement to support the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. One or two minutes later he stepped out of a nondescript door.
“I did it in solidarity with Dr Ford. All the emotions I have felt over the last weeks came pouring out. It was Dr Ford’s story that allowed me to tell this secret to my parents. I now have to do the work of how my parents [and I] process this experience, and I don’t know how this is going to go.” “He was rushing to the elevator, we were running behind him. I was really still kind of in reaction mode to the announcement he had made with his statement. I had somehow pinned my hopes on him.”
Archila’s father discovered his daughter had been assaulted as a child when he watched news footage of the encounter with Senator Flake. Archila said he messaged her immediately to apologise for not having protected her. Flake will retire from the Senate in November. Though he is a prominent critic of Donald Trump, he is also a strong conservative. Kavanaugh’s nomination would shift the supreme court firmly to the right.
Speaking to Newsnight, Archila said the encounter with the senator took place soon after she and Gallagher had read that he planned to back Kavanaugh’s nomination in the committee meeting he was about to attend. Flake, she said, appeared to want “to be anywhere else but in that elevator”. “His statement made me deeply sad, deeply angry, frustrated,” Archila said. “So when he came out, I didn’t have anything planned to say. I just said I was here just a few days ago, telling my experience.”
She said: “Immediately after he came out of his office, we – in an outpouring of frustration and rage and sadness and anger – stopped him, confronted him and forced him to listen to our stories and … questions. Archila is a co-director at the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), a not-for-profit group that campaigns for an “inclusive, equitable society”. She and Gallagher have been hailed as heroines by Democrats and by international supporters of the #MeToo movement.
“We forced him to listen to our stories. He, I think, understood and had to confront the level of pain and rage that women across the country were feeling watching Dr Ford being put on trial in front of millions of people. I think that he had to confront the emotion and examine his decisions again,” she said. Archila said she confronted Flake “because I recognized myself – I saw myself in Dr Ford’s words, and the way she told her story. We need to be believed. We wanted him to feel to have to look us in the eye to feel our pain. I thought, ‘We have to fight up until the last minute.’”
Speaking to the American media, she explained the impact of Ford’s testimony on her. “When the #MeToo movement broke out, I thought about saying it — but I wrote things and deleted it and eventually decided I can’t say, ‘me too’. But when Dr Blasey [Ford] did it, I forced myself to think about it again.” Archila had never told her story publicly, and in fact had to text her father to reveal the assault after she confronted Flake.
Gallagher, a 23-year-old from Westchester, has also talked about her actions in the lift, tweeting that she was relieved to learn that Senator Flake had “heard their voices”. “We absolutely need an FBI investigation and for him and all senators to vote NO,” she wrote. “I said, ‘You’re going to see something in the news, and I’m OK,’” Archila said.
Gallagher said she had never told anyone about the assault she suffered and that her mother called her after seeing her protest on television, adding that the family conversation to come would not be easy. “I was trying to protect him from my pain, from having to experience the pain. I was both incredibly sad that my fear as a child was in fact confirmed, but also [it was] kind of a relief that finally we could just hold it together, and I was able to say to him it wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t my fault, and I felt very supported.”
“It was all kind of a blur. We all ran after him. We held open the elevator and I just started telling him why it was important and what had happened to me and why he should not let Brett Kavanaugh on the supreme court,” she recalled. Gallagher said her her mother called after seeing her protest on television. The family conversation to come would not be easy, Gallagher said.
“He wouldn’t meet my eye. It made me very angry,” Gallagher continued. “He kept saying ‘thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’ and wasn’t taking into account what his actions would be doing to millions of people and what this means for everyone.” Archila said she acted out of “shock and outrage at the possibility of someone being accused of attempted rape being in the supreme court” but also because “like women across the country” she was “offended by the fact we were being treated as unreliable, treated with disbelief, treated with doubt”.
Gallagher has not given further details of an assault she said she never expected to reveal to a US senator. Of Flake’s call for an FBI investigation, she said she was “honestly surprised”.
Asked if she thought it was their efforts that had led Flake to change his mind, Archila spoke of the outpouring from all those who had come forward to tell their stories. “He made a decision that seemed to be shaped by the moment,” she said. “I had a little seed of optimism, but I was really reminded: yes, this is how social change happens in these countries. People do things they’ve never done before.”
Gallagher tweeted that she was relieved to learn Flake had “heard their voices”. “We absolutely need an FBI investigation and for him and all senators to vote NO,” she wrote.
Archila also spoke to the BBC’s Newsnight. Asked if she thought it was their efforts that had led Flake to change his mind, she spoke of the outpouring from all those who had come forward to tell their stories.
She said: “I think if it had been just me, just me and Maria telling our stories, it would have had no consequence. It was the result of thousands of people coming out telling their stories, showing up to their offices and millions of people watching Dr Blasey Ford being put on trial.She said: “I think if it had been just me, just me and Maria telling our stories, it would have had no consequence. It was the result of thousands of people coming out telling their stories, showing up to their offices and millions of people watching Dr Blasey Ford being put on trial.
“It is really the result of the collective effort, of all of us trying to make sure that our country does not shy away from staring at the darkness and shame of sexual violence, and a culture that condones it, but ignoring survivors.” “It is really the result of the collective effort, of all of us trying to make sure that our country does not shy away from staring at the darkness and shame of sexual violence, and a culture that condones it, by ignoring survivors.”
Brett KavanaughBrett Kavanaugh
US supreme courtUS supreme court
Law (US)Law (US)
RepublicansRepublicans
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