Activist who faced Flake gets SOTU invite

N.Y. woman will attend thanks to Ocasio-Cortez

The woman who confronted then Sen. Jeff Flake on live television will attend the State of the Union address Tuesday at the invitation of her congresswoman, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, made headlines for holding an elevator on Capitol Hill to tearfully yell at Flake, R-Ariz., during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.

On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called Archila’s confrontation with Flake “a defining moment.”

Flake was on his way to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a vote on the day after Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testified about the sexual assault accusations Ford made against the then-Supreme Court nominee.

Archila and a friend stopped the elevator to confront Flake about his support of a man who had been accused of sexual assault. They said he was telling other sexual assault victims that their voices don’t matter.

“That they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened

to them, you’re going to ignore more of them,” Archila said during the confrontation in September.

“That’s what happened to me and that’s what you’re telling all women in America, that they don’t matter, they should just keep it to themselves because if they have told the truth, you’re just going to help that man to power anyway.”

Flake initially had signaled he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh, but that day voted “no” in committee and demanded an FBI investigation into the accusations after Archila confronted him.

After the weeklong FBI investigation was completed, Flake still voted to confirm Kavanaugh, who is now on the Supreme Court.

Flake did not seek re-election in 2018. His Senate term ended on Jan. 3.