Tami Sawyer is a commissioner on the Shelby County Commission in Memphis and a social justice advocate. She serves on the board of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. The views expressed here are solely hers. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) As President Donald Trump touched down Tuesday at Memphis International Airport to lead a rally in nearby Southaven, Mississippi, I was also crossing into Mississippi to attend a political event of a different kind. I was driving two hours to Cleveland, Mississippi, to speak on a panel with former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, currently running for US Senate, on progressive, intergenerational leadership.

Tami Sawyer

While we were in deep conversation about the continued movement for racial justice in the South, Trump was roughly 120 miles north of us, mocking Professor Christine Blasey Ford -- and every person in America who has been a victim of sexual assault.

It was dark as I drove home to Memphis and heard video of Trump's shocking retelling of Ford's testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, mimicking her in a belittling tone and accusing her of leaving Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh's life in "tatters" and his family's life "shattered." The darkness was fitting as I watched the elected leader of our nation take an even darker turn.

Trump's taunts of Professor Ford, and the cheers they elicited in the arena where the rally was held, set a precedent that further emboldens rape culture in our country. It was clear that Trump's only concern is for the life of the man accused by more than one woman of sexual assault or misconduct and not for the women who have lived with the trauma of being assaulted. Judge Kavanaugh has denied the allegations against him. As I drove, I could only think of the young women and the children who would hear the President's words and how their own voices would be muted by his lack of empathy and the bravado with which he sought to disempower his own accusers and those of Kavanaugh.

That our President said and did these things is a national disgrace, but that he did so in Mississippi and just outside Memphis is especially appalling. According to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services, 14% of high school girls in Mississippi reported being forced to have sex against their will, higher than reported data nationally. Sunflower County, near where I was when Donald Trump was speaking, is part of the Mississippi Delta, the poorest part of the state. If a young girl in Sunflower County is sexually assaulted, her options for mental health care and reproductive health care are severely limited.

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