President Trump fired out a doozy of a tweet this morning, one that Republican Sen. Susan Collins finds “appalling.”
I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018
Collins, a key Republican vote in the narrowly divided Senate, said in Portland, Maine:
“I was appalled by the president’s tweet. First of all, we know that allegations of sexual assault – I’m not saying that’s what happened in this case – but we know allegations of sexual assault are one of the most unreported crimes that exist. So I thought that the president’s tweet was completely inappropriate and wrong.”
The suggestion that Ford is lying about the attack is bad enough, but this is an unprecedented statement for a president to make — especially coming from a man who has come under similar scrutiny for his own behavior.
Besides the infamous Access Hollywood tape, Trump has been accused by numerous women of sexual harassment and assault.
The fact is in most cases of sexual assault and rape, based on the data we have, not reporting sexual assault is typical.
As Vox has pointed out, part of this is the result of sexual assault victims fearing the repercussions of speaking out — the shaming, stigma, and retaliation, not to mention the difficulty of potentially reliving a traumatic event over and over in the course of an investigation.
We’ve seen this with the Kavanaugh accusations, with pundits questioning whether any of the claims are true, trolls doxxing and threatening Ford, others digging into Ford’s personal history and credibility, and politicians, particularly on the Republican side, resisting the idea of getting the FBI more involved prior to a Senate hearing over the matter.
But much of the problem is the fact that even when sexual assault survivors do come forward, police don’t appear to pursue their claims as vigorously as they would other crimes.
The result: Most people who commit sexual assault and rape in the US go free — without any kind of criminal investigation or punishment.
The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), drawing on federal surveys and data, concluded that for every 1,000 rapes, just six perpetrators are incarcerated.
Part of the problem is the vicious cycle this creates: Sexual assault survivors think that the police won’t investigate their accusations very seriously, so they’re skeptical of coming forward — and opening themselves to all sorts of scrutiny — when they might not even get justice.
Ford expressed a similar sentiment to the Washington Post regarding Kavanaugh and whether Congress would take the allegations against him seriously: “Why suffer through the annihilation if it’s not going to matter?”