Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 38 | Before Believing Kavanaugh's Accuser

Episode Date: September 18, 2018

Today we're told that unless we unconditionally believe the woman who accuses a man of sexual assault, we're misogynists. In reality, that theory is unjust. Instead, we should always be in an earnest pursuit of truth. On this episode, I discuss the complexities of the latest Kavanaugh drama and unpack possible conclusions.    Copyright CRTV. All rights reserved.

What's up, guys? It's Tuesday. Welcome to Relatable. I am your host, Ali Stucky. This is a podcast by CRTV. And just in case you guys don't actually know what CRTV is, maybe you just discovered this podcast randomly. It's basically your one-stop job for some of what I consider to be the best conservative commentators out there. You've got Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin, Stephen Crowder, Romy Millennial, Graham Allen, Dan Ponino, lots of others. And of course, you have me. We've got a very wide range of perspectives, which is what I think makes it really unique. And it's definitely worth your subscription because not only do you get all of those people and me, but you also get to watch this podcast right here rather than just listen on iTunes or wherever.

And you can even get a discount if you sign up at CRTV.com using promo code Alley 20. I think it's actually only $10 a month anyway, which is less than you spend on coffee every month. And now it gets to be even cheaper if you use my code. Okay. Anyway, here we are in the midst of another blessed news cycle. Today we are going to talk about Brett M. Kavanaugh, the recent and more specific sexual assault allegations that have been leveled against him, what it all means. And then we're going to kind of talk about in general in the broader sense, this idea of unconditionally, quote, believing the woman or believing the victim. I wrote a piece for Town Hall that came out yesterday called Before Believing Kavanaugh's accuser

that outlined all of the questions that I still have about this entire scenario that allegedly played out. I encourage you to go to townhall.com and read and share that. It's basically just articulating what I'm about to say on this podcast. So let me give you a little bit of a recap just in case you haven't been paying attention to all of this. And if you haven't, I don't really blame you. It's been stupid dramatic theater for the past few weeks. So I'll just let you know what's been happening. Last week, I believe it was, Senator Feinstein from California. She's a Democrat. She released a letter in which she vaguely alluded to a sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh. She said someone came to her with this story and that it's being looked into. Of course,

the first reaction by most people was, wait, what? What? Why? I released something like this without being willing to talk about the facts of the case or any specifics whatsoever. And the conclusion that a lot of people came to, especially a lot of people on the right, including me, is that, well, the only reason Feinstein would release something like this, someone who has been adamantly opposed to Kavanaugh from the beginning, is to cause outrage about something, to cause outrage about something that may or may not have happened. And honestly, because Feinstein went about it in this way with all of this vagary, people just automatically assumed that it was a political stunt and that it wasn't true. And there are further reasons that people believed that and still believe that. Senator Feinstein reportedly received the story from this sexual assault accuser in July, yet she waited until only recently when things were really heating up in the confirmation process.

and when she did, she didn't reveal any details whatsoever, just that whatever it actually is happens. And at the time, I thought, like I said, okay, nothing is ever going to come out of this. Nothing specific. This was just put out there to make people mad and to put pressure on certain Republicans senators to not confirm him. Because anything involving a hint of sexual misconduct at this point in our history is enough to end someone's career. I thought that they were just going to use this as kind of the straw to break Senator Murkowski or Senator Collins back to get them to pull their support from Kavanaugh. Murkowski and Collins are two Republican senators that often go to the left.

They're easy victims for Democrats' ploys. So that's what I thought. I tweeted that. I did an entire video for CRTV on that saying that these vague accusations probably aren't real and Democrats don't really care if they're real. So some of that is still true, but there's some nuance to it now that this Washington Post piece has come out. So it was published on Sunday in which the accuser identified herself and told her story to this Washington Post journalist. Her name is Christine Blazy Ford and she is a professor in California.

She contacted the post after Senator Feinstein released the letter because she noticed that a lot of inaccuracies were circulating regarding her story. And she wanted to set the record straight. She actually said that she had hoped that her story would remain confidential, would be kept a secret when she sent it to Feinstein. But Feinstein, of course, decided not to fulfill those wishes. I wonder why. So now this woman felt the need to come forward and tell her story. She claims that when she was in high school,

more than 30 years ago, early 1980s, Kavanaugh brought her into a room at a party when they were 17, while his friend, Mark Judge, watched the door, and Brett Kavanaugh forced himself on her, groped her, tried to take her clothes off. When she tried to scream, she says that he covered her mouth. Apparently, Mark Judge then jumped on top of them and she was able to escape and then lock herself in a bathroom. She said that she didn't talk about this until she was in couples therapy with her husband in 2012. And she said that she hadn't really realized that this was a traumatic incident for her.

When Kavanaugh was nominated, she reached out to Feinstein. Like I said, she claims she wanted her story to remain confidential. But I mean, I'm really not sure what she thought Feinstein was going to do with this information. Obviously, she wanted it to affect what happened to Kavanaugh. And the only way that was going to happen was if people actually heard about it. But, I mean, I guess it's kind of besides the point. So she makes these claims. which does give more credence to the story than Feinstein's original letter, which kind of seemed like a political stunt.

But there are still some really serious aspects of this that should honestly give us pause. Let me say first, though, that I want to believe this woman. I do. I want to believe that there aren't sick, evil people out there who would make up lies like this in order to ruin someone's entire life and career. And if this did happen, I actually believe that she didn't tell anyone until 2012. I think that's probably kind of normal. She was probably like, well, we were all drunk. I shouldn't have been in that room, whatever. And she probably brushed it off as something that she would really just like to forget.

I don't think the fact that she never told anyone works against her necessarily. And if this did happen, I feel badly for her. No, she wasn't actually raped or hurt. but I can totally see why this was a really frightening, really scary thing that that scarred her probably. She said in the Washington Post piece that she thought he was going to inadvertently kill her, which is really disturbing. That's something that would haunt you. So if this did happen, I am sorry for her.

I really am. And the immorality of sexual assault shouldn't be brushed under the rug, so I never want to seem like that's what I'm trying to do. But there are still significant buts here. We just can't take this at face value considering the circumstances under which this story came out. Democrats have already shown a severe aversion to facts during this confirmation process. For example, Kamala Harris claimed that Kavanaugh opposed birth control, a myth that has been completely debunked by every news outlet on both sides of the aisle. Corey Booker, aka Spartacus, claims to have broken Senate rules to release documents on Kavanaugh.

and he actually didn't break any rules and the documents showed nothing. I already read to you the Women's March email that claimed all of these falsities about him. It's all been crazy political theater. Their questioning has had nothing to do whatsoever with the Constitution, which he is being nominated to defend, but rather his failure to align with the leftist agenda. And it's really not about Kavanaugh at all. It's about fanning outrage against Republicans before the midterms. this is all fuel for the anti-Trump resistance and has nothing to do with actually testing Kavanaugh's competence for the Supreme Court.

So in light of all of this political theater, in light of the false claims Democrats have already made, in light of the desperation, they have demonstrated to try to stop or hinder this confirmation, you have to, of course, wonder if this is just another smear attempts. They've accused him of all kinds of ridiculous untrue things, tried to paint him as a racist, have said that he, is going to set women back to take away our rights. And all of these attempts have failed. Because in the hundreds of thousands of documents, Democrats have sifted through, in all of the opinions about Kavanaugh supplied by people who have worked with him

and have known him for decades on both sides of the political spectrum, there has not been a negative untoward thing found out about him. So you just have to wonder, if you're being honest, if this is just another evil political attack. their kind of last-stitch effort. Plus, Ford herself is apparently a leftist who donates to Democrat political campaigns,

and her legal advisor is also a Democrat who has expressed antipathy towards people who work for Donald Trump. She also took Bill Clinton's side in the Paula Jones case. So we kind of know where she stands on all of this. There are a lot of politics going on here that makes it very wise, very important. for us to be taken a step back and asking questions. And there are real objective reasons to doubt the validity of her claims, even beyond the fact that Democrats are using her for political gain. One, we don't have any corroborating witnesses or evidence. Mark Judge, the guy she claimed was there during the assault, told the weekly standard that nothing like that ever happened,

that he had never seen Brett Kavanaugh behaved that way. Two, Kavanaugh himself has rejected the claims saying that he categorically denies it, that he did not do this in high school or any time. Three, countless people have come out in support of Kavanaugh's integrity and character. Specifically, 65 women signed a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, stating that in the 35 years they've known him, he has only treated everyone they know with respect and decency, and specifically that he has always treated women with respect. These women, by the way, who signed this letter are not all Republicans. They have, as far as we can tell, no ulterior motive to support Kavanaugh, besides truly wanting people to know that he is a good, trustworthy person.

Also, and I know this is the kind of controversial question to ask, but we have to wonder, do we hold people accountable for the isolated sins that occurred or that they committed? when they were 17 years old, particularly drunken, isolated sense. Now look, if this did happen, it was bad. That's a moral that is wrong. Terrible. And Kavanaugh owes her an apology. He should have done it sooner. I do not chalk up this kind of thing to owe, you know, that's just boys being boys.

That's just what they do. There are plenty of teenage boys that don't assault women. But the fact that this may have happened when he was 17 and drunk and as far as we know only happened once, probably specifically. speaks more to his immaturity at the time than it does to his incompetence or lack of character now. It is quite the precedent to set that we are all to be held accountable for the mistakes that we made when we were 17 before our frontal lobes were fully developed. Like you know that our brains don't actually develop fully until we're 25, right? Like people do stupid, stupid things when they're

teenagers. That's why insurance is so expensive for teenagers who drive. And in, even though being young does not negate the wrongness of this, I'm just not sure that this should disqualify Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court. Because in every way that we've seen, he is qualified for this. Now, if, big if, this was a pattern of behavior, if this happened on multiple occasions, if he is a predator, then that is a different story, in my opinion. That might mean that this is the kind of guy he was and maybe deep down is. Because that means it wasn't some spur of the moment out of character thing. It was something he consistently planned and thought about.

And that, to me, would be disqualifying because that indicates this kind of whole other level of depravity and lack of discernment. Plus, if that were the case, if this was something he did on multiple occasions or on a regular basis, if he is a serial predator, that would also make him a sociopath. because he has apparently been able to convince everyone in his life that he's this good, upstanding guy. Dozens of colleagues, friends, peers, students have come forward vouching for his character. He, of course, has a wife and daughters.

He's a basketball coach for his daughter's basketball team. Every record and opinion on the guy that we have says that he is straight-laced and fair-minded. So, Kavanaugh would have had to be very good at hiding his pattern of predation if that were the case, which would make him sociopathic, which of course would disqualify him from sitting on the Supreme Court. But that that's just not likely. It's just not. He has been working in D.C. for years for his entire career almost. He worked on Ken Starr's investigation into Bill Clinton, and this never came out. In the swamp that is D.C., especially in anything involving the Clinton's secrets like this just don't stay secrets for very long. They just don't.

So really the choices are these. Cavanaugh is a predator and a sociopath who has manipulated everyone in his life into believing that he's decent or B, he was a drunk teenager who did something that he shouldn't have or C, he is an innocent man being falsely accused by partisan hacks. Like we have already established, the first one is really hard. to believe. He's been in the game for too long, for nothing like this to ever have come up. Number two is very possible, but we still just, we just don't know whether or not that should really be disqualifying. And number three, given our current information, is probable. This could very well be a political stunt by Democrats. Democrats know that even if this confirmation goes

through, which it probably still will, that this is going to cause a lot of outrage. And it's going to help them come, it's going to help them come November, come the midterms, because Republicans are going to be the misogynist sick bigots who don't believe women, who actually confirmed an accused sexual assault around to the Supreme Court. It's a very clever line of attack. And I trust the Democrats are very, very much looking forward to using it. And that's really the thing. here. Whether or not this story is true, Democrats do not care about Ford. They don't. They do not

care about this alleged victim. Even if this did happen and caused her true trauma, Democrats do not care about that. They do not care about the validity of her account. They do not even care about Kavanaugh's true character. They care about using this as a weapon to fight Republicans. That is it. Democrats are the ones who are politicizing these allegations who are countering. You are capitalizing on the supposed pain of Kavanaugh's accuser who have turned this whole thing into a partisan charade so that no one believes Ford's allegations. So if there are doubts surrounding this story, Democrats are to blame. They have cried Wolf a dozen times during this process alone, and now they're accusing

us of hating women for not fully believing them this time around. And if this story is true, that's really too bad for Ford. If this really happened to her, now she has to deal with it publicly and politically. But she decided to tell her story only when politics were at stake. That alone doesn't necessarily make it untrue, but it adds flavor to her story that makes it seem less plausible and more political. She chose this timing. And these are the natural repercussions of that.

Like I said, I actually want to believe her, despite wanting to. Kavanaugh confirmed because I don't I don't like the idea that someone would make up a story like this and ruin someone's entire life based on some unsubstantiated allegation. And I know that happens in the criminal justice system too. I know that. I don't like the idea of living in that kind of world. I want to think that we live in a just country. I want to believe that someone would only come forward with something like this if it were

true. But we just don't know. given the circumstances, given Democrats' seedy tactics so far, we have to take this with a grain of salt. And now Ford is saying, actually, that she is willing to come before the Senate committee and to testify in front of Congress. And so is Kavanaugh. Of course, Democrats are pushing for this because this means a further delay.

They would like to delay the confirmation until after the midterms and came. they win a majority in the Senate. Senator Collins, who, as I already said, is a female Republican, who a lot of times sides with the Democrats, says that they should both be heard, that we should have this hearing. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I am okay, maybe with a closed hearing and it needs to be expedited. But also, you know, I want, well, I want to hear their story. I kind of want to hear her side. I want him to be under oath saying that this didn't really happen, but I don't want a delay. I don't want to feed into Democrats' hands on this, especially if this isn't true. Senator Feinstein said she passes along to the FBI, and apparently the FBI refused it right

away. So again, that's another indication that this may not amount to much. So having an entire hearing on it might be a waste of time. I just don't know. I don't know. Like I said, maybe expediting closed hearing would be the best option here. But there's this new thing in light of the Me Too movement that says that we must, under every circumstance, unconditionally believe all victims. And then from there, we should back up. We assume that the accused is guilty. I don't believe that that is right or just. And as a Christian, I don't believe that that is biblical justice. Not in any sense. That's social justice, again, that is pushing down one group, in this case, men in order to elevate another group just because you think men are more privileged.

I don't think that's fair and I don't think that's right or righteous. I believe that he or she, whoever the victim is, has a right to get their story out there, but I do not believe without evidence or confirmation from the accused that we should allow uncorroborated claims to ruin someone's life. I just don't. I care about all victims of sexual assault and I believe that perpetrators should be punished to the furthest extent of the law. I think that there is a special place in hell for rapists.

But I also think that there is a special place in hell for people who falsely accused men of rape. I hate to see people's lives ruined over a rumor that they are helpless to shut down, that they're helpless to quiet. So if that is what is happening to Brett Kavanaugh, I truly feel for him and I feel for his family. I still think unless more information comes out, I think he needs to be confirmed. I think Republicans need to be quick about it. And shame on Democrats, if this whole thing isn't true, shame on Democrats for perpetuated and peddling this lie.

If this is not true, this is about the lowest that you can stoop. Maybe even lower would be an accusation of pedophilia. I wouldn't put that past them, honestly, if this doesn't work. But it's very sad. Who seems to be a very decent man is now, his character is now, being assassinated by a rumor that he says is completely false. So that's my take on the controversial Kavanaugh thing. Don't be bullied into believing that you have to side with the victim unconditionally

without asking any questions. It's okay to ask questions that doesn't mean that you hate women. It doesn't mean that you don't care about victims. It just means that you care about the truth, that you want to hear both sides, that you care about the validity of the story. And I never want us to be, you know, that phrase so open-minded that. our brains fall out. That's what I'm afraid is happening with this, that we are so willing to accept the victims that we are unwilling to hear the facts of the case. I don't want that to be true

here with Brett Kavanaugh, which so much is at stake. And I don't want that to be true in any situation. Okay. I'm going to answer a few of the questions that you guys asked me via Instagram. And then we'll be done. Okay. So first question is, I have a first question. I have a the recovered leftist feminist, hate everyone and everythingist, and have learned so much since coming to the figurative and literal right side that I would love to share on social media, but I'm honestly terrified to do so. How do you have the guts to speak out about your political views when the people who oppose you are so hostile, don't debate facts?

It seems like an uphill battle for me. Well, I think it depends on what your purpose is. I talk about a lot when I go speak or even when I talk on social media about young people pursuing whatever career it is that they want to pursue or doing the things that they feel like they were put on this earth to do is to know your why. What is your motivation behind your starting a platform and talking about your conversion from the left to the right? Is it to change people's minds? Is it to emboldened people to take the same steps that you did? Is it just to convey truth and influence people with your own experience. Whatever it is, you have to determine the why

behind what you do before you determine the what. And the reason that's so important is because when you know your purpose, when you know your why, that's bigger than the dollar, that's bigger than fame, that's bigger than followers, that's bigger than other people's approval, then all of this petty criticism and all of this pushback that you get from people, it just kind of rolls off. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't care when people say something really mean to me or when people hurt my feelings on the internet because that certainly happens or when I get criticism for something that I say, of course, it, you know, it hurts. I'm a normal human being. But my purpose is much higher and bigger than winning the approval of people on the

internet. I feel like my goal is to speak the truth in love to our generation about what I believe is logical and biblical. That includes conservative values and that includes most importantly spreading the gospel. And that's my purpose. And no one can really take that away from me because I feel like it was given to me by God. So have a purpose that is bigger than all of these fleeting, temporary, superficial things. And you will see that people's criticism and people's praise of you just kind of rolls off because you're determined to do what you feel like you have been purposed to do. Okay. Next question. Do you believe that you have to go to church to be a good Christian slash person? Well, those are two very different questions, believing that

you have to go to church to be a good Christian or to be a good person. So I do think that attending church is an act of obedience to God. We're told. to be a part of the body of Christ, to serve the body of Christ, to love the church, to care for the church. I do think that means being a part of your local church and actually being involved in providing your talents in a way that builds up and helps the church. I have not been perfect in that in every single stage of my life. There have certainly been times in my life when I've been more apathetic, like in college, you know, it's like, oh, I might go to church on Sunday or I might just listen to a podcast. And it's more, you go through a stage when you're kind of an immature Christian

when you just care about what you're getting from church, when you're just like, oh, you know, is this pastor giving me what I want? Is this worship giving me what I want? When really it's not about that. It's about what you are giving the church. Obviously, you want the pastor to preach the gospel and to be speaking truth, but it's more of kind of a relationship rather than a consumer transaction type thing. So I do believe that it's an act of obedience to go to church as a Christian, to be a part of the local church. Now, to be a good person, no, I don't think it's required to be a good person because I believe that all non-believers are dead and sin. So I'm not really concerned of people going to church to be a good people. I'm concerned about their unbelief. So what I want people to

repent of, what we should want all unbelievers to repent of is unbelief, not just behave. We don't just want behavior management. And so they go to church every Sunday and become good people. We want repentance and we want a change of heart, which can very well be accomplished by going to church, but it can also be accomplished through evangelism from a neighbor. Next question. How are we supposed to keep up on everything that is going on in the country and the world and still do work and timekeeping and be a wife and daughter and sister and friend and niece and granddaughter and proclaim the gospel and be with the church and serve the church and reach out to the poor and the loss and speak up for the week and those without a voice and study and

worship privately and pay our bills exercise. Go to the dentist and get our vehicle service and go to the grocery shop. Okay, I feel like I wrote this question to myself. I promise I didn't. I'm not weird. I don't write my own questions. This, I completely feel you out to the person who asked me this question. I think this on a weekly basis at the end of every week, usually every Sunday, I look back on my week and I'm always disappointed. I'm always disappointed. I'm always disappointed in myself for what I did not accomplish. I always feel like I could have done more. And I feel like when I have a week where I did, you know, a lot of good work for my job, I look back and I'm like, I didn't even think about another person this week. Like I didn't, I didn't volunteer.

I didn't give. I didn't donate my time to anyone that except for me. And, you know, of course, my husband and my family. But I'm like, wow, I'm really selfish. All I do is pursue my own things. And then the next week, I'm like, okay, I'm going to volunteer. I'm going to volunteer at church this week and I'm going to feel better about myself. And then I look back and I'm like, oh my gosh, I didn't see my grandma this week. I didn't write that article that I said that I was going to. I don't. So I, all of this to say, I don't have the answer for you.

There are only a few hours every day in which we are awake. And I think our responsibility is to make the most of our time to steward our free time well. One thing that I am really bad about is not. being disciplined with my free time. Instead of using that time to do something productive, I scroll on social media, which is just a really bad habit. So I think it's a matter of using our time wisely, of being disciplined, setting a schedule, and I am preaching to the choir because that's something that I need

to do better. I am like all or nothing. I'm doing a million things for five hours and then for the next three hours. I'm lazy. I'm not very disciplined or organized with my time, and I think it's important to do that to make sure that we're stewarding our time well. But at the same time, you can't put too much pressure on yourself to accomplish everything in a 24-hour day. God knows that we're finite. God knows that we are limited. He made us that way. We have to rest. That's another thing I don't do well.

And we have to sleep. And that's okay. We are not called to everything, but we are called to some things. And some things that we are called to, we need to do well and obediently. Um, last question. Hi, Ellie. I have a question in IDK, if I should know this as a 26 year old woman. Who in the world takes these surveys that you and others refer to? You refer to a couple on your last podcast. Uh, I don't know if you mean like who specifically.

I think you just mean the outlets. I typically use pure research. I just think that they have very good thorough studying. Gallup is pretty good. U.Gov is pretty good. Those are probably the three that I refer to the most. I use Pew a lot. I get their emails every day.

And I just think they study very interesting things and they have a lot of interesting perspectives. So if that's what you're asking, those are the resources that I typically go to, those kind of polls and surveys. So I hope that helps you. If you have any other questions about the sources I use, feel free to message me or email me. And thank you guys so much for listening. I hope that you have a great rest of your Tuesday, a great. week and I will see you back here on Thursday.