Protesters greet GOP Sen. Jeff Flake in Boston, urge him to vote against confirming Kavanaugh

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.

(Image credit: Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

published 2 October 2018

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) was in Boston on Monday for the Forbes Under 30 summit, and before the event, more than 1,500 protesters rallied in the streets, calling on him to vote "no" should the full Senate vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Congressional candidates Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York both spoke to the crowd, with Pressley, a member of the Boston City Council, sharing that when she was a student at Boston University, she was raped. Pressley said she is "angry" and "outraged" over the protection Kavanaugh has received from Republican lawmakers since Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez both accused him of sexual assault; after Ford testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the hearing was "a charade."

"There were men in positions of power, of privilege, and prestige who described those proceedings as a disgrace to our nation, when the real disgrace is a tolerance of rape culture," Pressley said. Ocasio-Cortez echoed her sentiments, saying, "Sexual assault is about the abuse of power ... that is why a man believes that an elite education, a high income, and his rich friends can get away with sexual assault."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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