Seth Abramson's summary this morning -- copied here in full
For those who have trouble with tweets. This is important.
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
33m33 minutes ago
The damage Republicans have done to Americans' understanding of legal terms, criminal investigation, and the types of evidence deemed reliable in sex-crime cases is incalculable. Forget Kavanaugh—millions of sexual assault victims will suffer because of what Republicans did here.
88 replies 1,001 retweets 2,322 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
31m31 minutes ago
2/ Susan Collins stood up and said that "corroboration" in sex-crime cases requires either eyewitnesses or a confession. She said that the suspects in a sex crime are "witnesses" who must confirm their accuser's account.
Stop and think about what that means for women in America.
31 replies 240 retweets 642 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
29m29 minutes ago
3/ Collins stood up and said that certain sexual assault allegations—see Ramirez—can be ignored, presumably because they're not attempted rapes, they're "only" sexual assaults. And then she lied about the content of a sworn and corroborated affidavit (Swetnick) for partisan gain.
6 replies 136 retweets 394 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
28m28 minutes ago
4/ Collins and her peers said that not only do uncharged sexual assaults from one's youth not matter—people can change—but that that same forgiveness should be extended to those who never take responsibility for their crimes and lie repeatedly under oath as an adult to hide them.
5 replies 110 retweets 391 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
26m26 minutes ago
5/ The Republican Party is endangering women's lives by revamping the nation's understanding of evidence collection and even moral culpability in sexual assault and rape cases. They've mis-educated a nation on violence against women to score a cheap political win. That is *evil*.
11 replies 202 retweets 519 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
6/ Swetnick's sworn affidavit—corroborated by another accuser's sworn affidavit—says Kavanaugh and Judge groped women and spiked drinks at parties where women were taken advantage of. Collins discussed that affidavit like it was *insane*—not the *known* "rape culture" in America.
11:42 AM - 6 Oct 2018
119 Retweets
365 Likes
Ruth G Stevens
Mary-Rose
Adrianna Gallo
DAOLSON
Julia 🇺🇸🌻🏳️?🌈
🗽📖M.D. Haddad🏔️🌅
P Christensen Woodard
➖ 🍊 🔜
Dave Vader
7 replies 119 retweets 365 likes
J. Smith Tweet text
New conversation
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
21m21 minutes ago
7/ Collins lied about Swetnick and Accuser #4's sworn affidavits. She said that the women had accused Kavanaugh and Judge of doing what *Judge later confessed to doing* to his girlfriend—having sex with an incapacitated woman. But *neither* Swetnick *nor* Accuser #4 alleged that.
6 replies 79 retweets 266 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
19m19 minutes ago
8/ There's no convention of discourse that prevents us from calling Republicans "rape enablers" in this instance—as that's literally what they did. They called sexual assault suspects mere "witnesses"; lied about sworn affidavits; lied about evidence; and demanded no contrition.
6 replies 85 retweets 238 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
18m18 minutes ago
9/ Moreover, they advanced specious—and misogynistic—defenses to sexual assault, saying that sex crimes in one's youth shouldn't matter when one is an adult *even if one never takes responsibility for one's actions and one lies repeatedly under oath before Congress to hide them*.
4 replies 60 retweets 198 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
16m16 minutes ago
10/ The facts here gave Republicans *every possible chance* to do the honorable thing: ask Trump to nominate another conservative—perhaps one like Gorsuch, who just *months earlier* sailed through to confirmation despite GOP claims now that the Democrats would "never" allow that.
5 replies 74 retweets 223 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
14m14 minutes ago
11/ Republicans could've withheld their votes on Kavanaugh because he never acknowledged culpability for his past acts; because he perjured himself; because he demonstrated a lack of temperament; because he bared partisan ambitions and threatened Democrats. But no, *all* ignored.
11 replies 90 retweets 246 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
12m12 minutes ago
12/ One reason I'm so angry is I'm in many respects a *moderate Democrat*. I *want* to believe in compromise, a strong two-party system, both sides' basic good faith. But GOP malfeasance has made it impossible to see the GOP right now as anything other than an instrument of evil.
18 replies 95 retweets 366 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
9m9 minutes ago
13/ I don't know what happened. I don't think Collins is "evil," or Flake is "evil," or that most GOP senators are—but I think they allowed themselves to become agency-less instruments of men that history *will* deem evil (as we do Benedict Arnold), including Trump and McConnell.
21 replies 46 retweets 214 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
6m6 minutes ago
14/ Why do we pretend history doesn't deem certain men to have perpetrated so much evil that we see them—in totality—as villains? Consider George Wallace, or Nathan Bedford Forrest, or Charles Lindbergh. Can it be doubted that Trump and McConnell are causing as much or more harm?
3 replies 21 retweets 90 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
5m5 minutes ago
15/ There was a path of bipartisanship here: to have allowed Merrick Garland on the court because Obama nominated him *months* before any "Biden Rule" (not a rule, by the way) would've come into effect. Then Gorsuch could've gotten Kennedy's seat. It *didn't have to go this way*.
2 replies 18 retweets 88 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
4m4 minutes ago
16/ Republican leaders declared war on our traditions and institutions—and in so doing placed themselves on the wrong side of history's "heroes-and-villains" line. This *isn't* about GOP presidents not getting conservative Justices—they *do*. This is about honoring US traditions.
2 replies 15 retweets 77 likes
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
1m1 minute ago
17/ Democrats would've—of course—allowed votes on conservative Justices nominated by a Republican president had not McConnell stolen a Supreme Court seat and then allowed Trump to nominate a man who committed crimes—*crimes*—on national television in trying to hide his past ones.
0 replies 5 retweets 30 likes
