With Kavanaugh vote near, Trump says protesters sharing stories of sex assault are 'paid professiona

[babylonsister]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/kavanaugh-vote-near-trump-says-protesters-sharing-stories-sex-assault-n917051?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma

With Kavanaugh vote near, Trump says protesters sharing stories of sex assault are 'paid professionals'
The woman who confronted Republican Sen. Jeff Flake hit back: "The pain, the trauma and the rage ... were my own."
by Jonathan Allen / Oct.05.2018 / 10:10 AM EDT


WASHINGTON — Less than 90 minutes before a key procedural vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump dismissed Capitol Hill protesters — including those who have told their stories of sexual violence and assault — as "paid professionals" bent on making senators "look bad" in service to Democratic donor George Soros.

Link to tweet

snip//

Soros, a billionaire investor, has long donated money to liberal causes, but Trump offered no evidence that he was paying for demonstrators' signs. Archila works for the Center for Popular Democracy, which gets some of its funding from the Open Society Foundation, which is, in turn, backed by Soros.

Washington lawyer Bradley Moss, a frequent Trump critic, suggested on Twitter that Trump's allegation had anti-Semitic overtones.

"The President of the United States is literally joining the 'all our problems are the fault of this old wealthy Jew' chorus that exists on the fringe of the conservative moment," Moss wrote.

In a statement, Archila added that "President Trump is, again, trying to ignore the experiences of people in this country by discrediting individuals who dare to raise our voices and force elected officials to listen to our stories, to look us in the eye, to not turn away."

"He represents precisely what is wrong with our democracy," she added. "But the lesson from my the elevator conversation is that when we force political leaders to connect with us, with our humanity, we can breathe life into our democracy."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. He should know about "paid professionals."