Florida Bishop Donald J. Sanborn, like another Donald J., wants Brett Kavanaugh to be the next Supreme Court justice regardless of the allegations against him. That in itself isn’t newsworthy. A lot of conservatives don’t give a damn about sexual assault (at least if it gets in the way of something they want) and are eager to find an excuse — any excuse — to ignore the multiple allegations against Kavanaugh.

Sanborn is one of those conservatives who thinks all abuse victims need to come forth immediately in order to be believed, and delayed allegations are automatically discredited. He says Kavanaugh’s abuser should have been “cross-examined” as if last week’s hearing was some sort of trial. He says Kavanaugh should’ve been able to confront her directly for some reason. Oh, and by the way, even if he assaulted her, he doesn’t think it should matter because he was only 17 and “what the judge is accused of is not even a complete act. It was not a rape.”

See? He didn’t even finish! Are we going to withhold a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court from someone who maybe assaulted a woman but didn’t even get to finish?! That’s the Catholic compassion we all know and love.

But the most disturbing part of Sanborn’s post may be this additional argument to ignore everything Kavanaugh’s (first) accuser said:

In this case, however, it is Judge Kavanaugh’s word against Dr. Ford’s word. Moral law requires us, in that parity of contradictory testimony, to take the word of the superior, which in this case would be that of Judge Kavanaugh.

Oh. He’s the “superior” now. Therefore Kavanaugh’s testimony trumps that of Dr. Ford. Case closed.

Note that there’s no explanation of what makes him “superior” and there’s no moral law that says judges are more credible than Ph.D.s. It’s just straight-up misogyny. A man is always superior to a woman. A man denying assault is always more credible than a woman accusing him of assault. (Even when the man is known for lying about all sorts of things and the woman gains nothing by exposing the worst moment of her life.) Because the Catholic Church said so.

(Screenshot via YouTube)

