“I don’t remember,” he repeated during his impersonation.

AD

Trump’s remarks ignited an uproar on Capitol Hill and beyond, as politicians called his words “appalling” and “vile” and accused the president of “dividing us into tribes.”

AD

But at issue is not exclusively what the president said during the rally in Southaven, Miss.; it’s that he said it at all. Advocates for sexual assault survivors argue that society — and especially leaders — should be working to help put an end to sexual violence.

“We ought to be doing all that we can to encourage [sexual assault survivors] to come forward — certainly not mocking them when they do,” Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Washington Post, explaining that most survivors are reluctant to report incidents to authorities and that many do not even talk to their family members or friends.

AD

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Terri Poore, policy director for the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, a nonprofit group based in Washington, said Trump’s actions were “the absolute opposite” of what is needed from leaders.

AD

Poore said that advocates, activists and survivors have been working for decades to make progress regarding sexual violence — and Trump’s recent behavior “marked a new low point."

“This is opposite of what we’re asking leaders to do in terms of supporting us to end sexual violence,” she said.

In the United States, it is estimated that someone is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds and that a child is victimized every eight minutes, according to statistics from RAINN. That means that millions of men, women and children have been victimized in America — and Poore said that the president’s words were “tremendously hurtful” to them.

AD

“Survivors are watching and paying attention, and he is in the top leadership position in our country,” she said about the president. “It is incredibly hurtful to talk about a survivor that way, and it emboldens people inclined to commit sexual assault.”

AD

But in addition, she said, “it causes harm to the environment in which we’re asking survivors to step forward.”

Poore said that when survivors are wrestling with whether to share their stories, they are wondering whether they will be safe. “It’s hard to make the argument they are when there’s messages like this out there,” she said, referring to Trump’s remarks.

Ford recently spoke out against Kavanaugh, who she alleges sexually assaulted her when the two were teenagers, raising critical questions only days before the judge’s confirmation vote was set to take place. It prompted a nationwide uproar and led to a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in which Ford recounted details from a night in the 1980s when she said the incident occurred.

AD

In his own impassioned speech, Kavanaugh denied the claims.

AD

But in the days since Ford stepped into the public eye, Berkowitz, with RAINN, said “a record number” of sexual assault survivors have called the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

Though he said he does not foresee long-term damage to the cause, it’s “not the way we should be treating people who come forward with their own stories of sexual assault.”

“One of the reasons people keep quiet is this fear of reaction from family and friends and colleagues, so if the idea that mockery is an appropriate response ever took hold, it would be terrible and would lead many victims to keep quiet for longer,” he said, noting that he does not expect that to happen. “The president has a style of mocking lots of people, so I think people took it in that vein, but if that approach ever caught on, that would be a problem.”