Anti-Kavanaugh voices Hirono, Feinstein took campaign cash from Dem colleague who admitted hitting his wife
By
Lukas Mikelionis | Fox News
Sen. Mazie Hirono tells men to 'shut up and step up'
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday evening, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono urges men to 'do the right thing' amid allegations of misconduct against President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, who told men to “just shut up and step up” in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, might have some explaining to do about her campaign cash.
Data show that Hawaii's Hirono has taken money from a fellow Democrat who has admitted hitting his wife.
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper’s First State PAC donated $1,000 to Hirono’s political campaign in June, despite the Delaware lawmaker’s confession of abuse.
Delaware Sen. Tom Carper’s First State PAC donated $1,000 to Hirono’s political campaign in June, despite the lawmaker’s confession of abuse. (AP)
Also receiving donations from Carper’s group was U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will decide if Kavanaugh is appointed to the nation's highest court. Feinstein has received $5,000 from the PAC so far in 2018.
Other Democrats benefitting from Carper's PAC include U.S. Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Bill Nelson of Florida and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who've received $10,000 each from the PAC this year.
“Did I slap my wife 20 years ago? Yes. Do I regret it? Yes. Would I do it again? No.”
- Delaware Sen. Tom Carper
Carper admitted hitting his wife -- an allegation he pushed back against after it was first reported during his 1982 run for U.S. Congress -- in a 1998 interview with a local journalist Celia Cohen who published a book “Only in Delaware” that is sold by the state of Delaware on its official website, the
Washington Free Beacon reported.
“Did I slap my wife 20 years ago? Yes,” Carper admitted in the interview for the book. “Do I regret it? Yes. Would I do it again? No.”
The journalist wrote that that Carper “would not speak of the allegations, even when they were repackaged and resurfaced 14 years later while he was running for a second term as governor,” but during the interview for the book “he dealt with them straightforwardly."
The New York Post was the first newspaper to allege that Carper hit his wife. The story stemmed from a taped deposition the lawmaker gave as part of a child custody battle. He was accused of hitting his wife “so hard he gave her a black eye” while his children were allegedly “slapped around and bruised by Carper for doing such things as leaving the family dog on the bed.”
Carper, 71, won Delaware's Democratic primary earlier this month as he seeks a fourth Senate term.
Revelations of Carper’s donations to Hirono, Feinstein and other Senate Democrats come at a time the party is attempting to stop the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh after California professor Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexual assault.
Hirono has become one of the leading anti-Kavanaugh senators, criticizing men and the culture of silence that the MeToo movement is trying to change.
“Guess who is perpetrating all of these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country,” Hirono said Tuesday. “I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up. Do the right thing, for a change.”
“There is an environment where people see nothing, hear nothing, and say nothing,” Hirono added in a statement. “That is what we have to change.”
