Trump’s mockery of sexual assault victim Ford ‘appalling’

Following explosive allegations, United

States President

Donald Trump stood on stage at a political rally in the Deep

South and openly mocked the woman at the centre of an extremely public sexual assault scandal. “‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ ‘Upstairs? Downstairs? Where was it?’ ‘I don’t know. But I had one beer. That’s the only thing I remember’”, Trump said on Tuesday, ridiculing Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Trump’s remarks ignited an uproar, as politicians called his words “appalling” and accused the president of “dividing us into tribes”. But the moot point is not just what Trump said, it’s that he said it at all. Advocates for sexual assault survivors argue that society — and especially leaders — should be working to end sexual violence. “We ought to be doing all that we can to encourage victims to come forward — certainly not mocking them when they do,” Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said.