'Rise up, women!': Emotions run high as protesters, backing Christine Ford, shout 'shame'

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Democratic Senator and Ranking Committee Member Dianne Feinstein says she is “very disappointed” that the Senate Judiciary Committee is ready for a Judge Kavanaugh vote.

WASHINGTON – Angry demonstrators, fists raised and shouting “Shame!,” poured into two Senate office buildings Friday to oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. At one point, two women who said they had been sexually abused blocked an elevator door to directly confront Sen. Jeff Flake on live TV.

“What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court,” a distraught woman told the Arizona Republican. “This is intolerable.”

A second woman, equally upset, told the senator: “You have power but so many women are powerless.” 

In the Dirksen Senate Office Building, police arrested a number of protesters, taking them off in plastic cuffs.

Over at the Hart Senate Office building, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, her voice choked with tears, gave a fiery speech to protesters, charging that the Republican-dominated committee’s push to confirm Kavanaugh quickly represented a “fundamental disrespect of women.”

“This is 11 men deciding that women have no right to be treated with respect, and we say, ‘Rise up, women!’ ” she said.

In the Senate elevator confrontation, the two women implored Flake while standing in the door, blocking it from closing. Throughout the ordeal, Flake largely avoided eye contact with the women, saying he had to get to the Senate meeting.

 “Don’t look away from me,” one of the women shouted. “Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me.”

The confrontation played out live on CNN as Flake’s staffer gently tried to defuse the situation and a reporter tried to coax a response from the senator.

In the hallway of the Dirksen building, meanwhile, kneeling protesters began using whistles to create a cacophonous noise, chanting “November is coming!” and “Shame!” 

Darius Gordon, a National field organizer for the Center for Popular Democracy, said Friday’s arrests send an important message – that “folks are not just willing to lay down and let things go smoothly.”

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Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., joined by from left, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, speaks to media about the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Carolyn Kaster, AP

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“If you are one of those women, we believe you. God loves you and we will stand with you until this injustice is over,” said Amber Neuroth, a pastor from Alexandria, Virginia. 

As the vote approached, protesters made their way to the Dirksen Senate Office building, where Judiciary Committee senators were scheduled to meet. Protesters shouted words of support to Democratic senators as they made their way inside and urged Republican senators to change their minds.

“You have a daughter! Do the right thing!” one demonstrator shouted at Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. stopped to speak to the protesters. 

“I truly appreciate all of you being here,” he said. “It means a lot and inspires us.”

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