Laura Ingraham was in such a snit over an accusation that Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape a young woman when they were both in high school that she trotted out Clinton accuser Juanita Broaddrick for a round of whataboutism. Unfortunately for Ingraham, Broaddrick completely disproved one of Ingraham’s big attack points.
Broaddrick was a strange guest choice given that there are questions about the credibility of her sexual assault accusation against Bill Clinton. But Fox News loves to cite her to accuse liberals of a double standard for sexual abuse. Apparently, Fox was counting on its viewers missing the network’s own double standard right under their noses.
“Democrats sang a different tune when multiple allegations of misconduct were raised about Bill Clinton,” Ingraham predictably began.
“It makes me go back to 1999,” Broaddrick said about the current situation with Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. “Dianne Feinstein refused to read my deposition to the independent counsel,” Broaddrick claimed. Apparently, Feinstein’s supposed hypocrisy then was supposed to prove that we shouldn’t hear more about Kavanaugh now. Broaddrick called it “astonishing that they can do this to Mr. Kavanaugh.”
To her credit, Ingraham recognized and addressed the contradiction. “If your allegations should have been taken more seriously, why shouldn’t this woman’s allegations be taken seriously as well?” she asked.
“Oh, I think that she should be heard,” Broaddrick said. “But I still have so many reservations about her comments.”
“I can’t imagine a young girl going through what Ms. Ford said she went through and not tell anyone,” Broaddrick continued.
Broaddrick went on to say that what she went through was so “horrific” that “the lady that found me was the first one that I told.” She said she told four other people, too. “That’s just something I can’t imagine that you can keep to yourself and not share with one of your closest friends.”
FACT CHECK: Experts know it is very common for victims to delay disclosing their trauma.
But who needs an expert when you’ve got a Clinton hater willing to point a finger at Democrats? As “proof” that Broaddrick was right, Ingraham played a montage of women who had called into her radio show earlier, each saying they had been victims of sexual assault and each arguing that Ford must be lying for not coming forward until now (even though she told her therapist about the incident in 2012). For Fox bonus points, one caller even said she’s a former Democrat who will “never vote Democratic again.”
Unfortunately, when Ingraham asked Broaddrick for her response, it wasn’t quite on message.
BROADDRICK: “You know people say, ‘Why didn’t you go to the police, Juanita? Why didn’t you do something?’ Bill Clinton was the police. I had no one to go to. … What do you do when your sexual abuser is at the highest law enforcement officer in your state? What do you do?
Or what do you do when, at 15, your high school sexual abuser is two years older and later becomes a clerk for a Supreme Court justice, associate counsel to independent counsel Ken Starr, works for President George W. Bush, then serves on the D.C. Court of Appeals?
Ingraham seemed to recognize what she had just stepped in. Instead of acknowledging that maybe Ford’s silence wasn’t so damning after all, Ingraham paused. She said, “Well, um, something that happens in high school is very, very difficult to get to the bottom of 36 years later.” Then she quickly ended the segment.
Watch Ingraham’s attack on Ford fall apart below, from the September 17, 2018 The Ingraham Angle.
One thing that gets me listening to Broderick and the callers who all claim to have been raped is how completely unemphatic and unbelieving they are of Christine Blasey Ford. One even is so angry at Ford coming out she’s not going to vote Democratic again. Really? WTF? We all see politics in how rape victims are treated depending on what party member is being accused. Now we’re hearing the victims themselves play politics.
Ingraham takes a serious tone devoid of her usual screeching, sanctimony, rage, and sarcasm. Her questions are even handed. Then she drops the explosive, highly politicized turd of those phone calls that are less about rape victims experiences than about personal attacks on Ford.
Like I said, it’s a weird segment. Politics corrupts everything it touches.