Jenna Sherman, a campaign director focused on tech and gender at Ultraviolet Action, said Trump’s order “only has one group of winners: his wealthy donors in the tech sector.”
"The changes come as campaign groups ParentsTogether Action and UltraViolet stage a first-of-its-kind virtual protest inside Roblox."
Meanwhile, outside the Capitol building Thursday, a different feminist group had set up a giant screen dedicated to showing, on a loop, the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Donald Trump bragged that his fame allowed him to “grab them by the pussy.” According to Roll Call, the video will air for 12 hours.
When the doors to the Hart Senate Office Building opened at 7:30 a.m. last Friday, a few protesters making a final show of opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh were waiting to be let in. As they waited, a woman named Maria Gallagher, with dark hair and glasses, introduced herself to me. She told me she lived in the area and had taken the morning off from work in response to a call to action from the progressive organizations MoveOn and UltraViolet. I asked if she was planning to get arrested—many of those visiting the building that day were prepared for civil disobedience. She said “no.” She had told her employer that she would be in by noon.
The support for Kavanaugh though, seemed outnumbered by the people at the Senate who turned out for Ford. Organized by activist groups like the Women’s March, Planned Parenthood and Ultraviolet, they poured into the Senate buildings before heading to the Supreme Court, where they chanted, “You won’t silence us! No means no.” At one point, a subset of demonstrators sat in the middle of the street in front of the Supreme Court singing “we shall not be moved.”
Ramirez, 53, told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh exposed himself during a drunken dormitory party at Yale University in the early 1980s, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.
The plane with the support message for Ramirez was commissioned by UltraViolet, a women’s advocacy group that supports sexual assault survivors. The group also paid for a similar message for Ford that flew over Palo Alto, Calif. last week.
The group, UltraViolet, is prepared to project “Kavanaugh is a sexual predator and well documented liar” on the Supreme Court building on Tuesday night, the group said in an announcement.
The projection will also read: “He lied every time he testified,” and “Kavanaugh must withdraw.”
DES MOINES, Iowa — After two women made allegations that Supreme Court Nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted them, protesters say they want Senator Chuck Grassley to know they don’t believe Kavanaugh has the country’s best interests at heart.
“We ask that you publicly oppose Kavanaugh and call to cancel the vote on his confirmation. Kavanaugh already poses a threat to millions of people, especially women,” Peggy Schmitt from UltraViolet said during the protest.
The protests brought together women and men across the country for rallies and a walkout organized by a coalition that included Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement, UltraViolet Action, Planned Parenthood and MoveOn.
“I think it has soured me on her a little that I don’t actually see her opposing his behavior or his appointees in any meaningful ways. I mean it’s one thing to be appalled at his tweets, but what are you doing about his appointees, what are you doing about his policies? So certainly since 2016 things have changed,” she says.
The protest, organized by Mainers for Accountable Leadership and the national women’s group UltraViolet Action, is part of an ongoing campaign to pressure Collins to vote against Kavanaugh, who has now been accused of sexual assault by two women.
Over the weekend, the progressive group UltraViolet launched an ad campaign telling Republican senators: “Don’t put another sexual predator on the Supreme Court.” It’s a digital ad in Maine but is airing on television in Nevada, Arizona and West Virginia.
“Ramirez’s story is yet more proof that Kavanaugh should have already withdrawn his nomination and his wholly disqualified from holding any office in government, let alone one on the highest court in the country,” Shauna Thomas, the executive director and cofounder of UltraViolet, a women’s group participating in Monday’s protests, said. “Now is the time for Republicans in the Senate to make it clear that they believe women and find violence against women wholly unacceptable demanding Kavanaugh withdraw his nomination immediately.
While Donald Trump and Pam Bondi want to change the subject, we refuse to let them off the hook for protecting predators. That’s why we're flying airplane banners to keep Trump’s ties to child sex abuser and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in the news. Epstein’s more than 1,000 survivors deserve transparency and justice. Your gift today will keep the spotlight on Trump’s and Bondi’s deflections and center survivors in the public narrative!