Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to join my colleagues in lifting up the voices of women across the country who, right now, are being ignored, swept aside, and attacked, and in calling on our Republican colleagues to join us and do everything we can to make sure women are heard, listened to, and respected as we debate and deliberate over Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Recently, I was back home in Washington State to talk to my constituents about the Supreme Court nomination, and I met a woman named Caitlin, who bravely told me and others about her experience of being sexually assaulted. She shared her story. It was July 2016. She had gone to a concert that evening, and she was sexually assaulted that night, but it was how she explained what happened after that I want to share today. She said: As a sexual assault survivor, I know firsthand that these experiences have a lasting impact and the pain can't be overstated. In the aftermath of sexual violence, it's common to feel humiliated and to blame ourselves; to just want to forget it ever happened. I didn't want to admit that I'd ``allowed'' this to happen to me, so I tried to convince myself that the attack had never occurred. For these reasons and so many others, it's common to wait months or . . . years before confiding in anyone, even those closest to us. Those were Caitlin's words to me.…”