Barbara Boxer on Anita Hill and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

BARBARA BOXER, (D), FORMER CALIFORNIA SENATOR: And I would say to my colleagues, my friends, the Republican women of the Senate with whom I had wonderful relationships with, this is your time. Do what we did. Stand up and demand justice and stand with this woman because if you look at all the facts that surround this, I think you’ll believe her.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Let us broaden out a little bit because I mention, that you were a congresswoman back in 1991, and after the hearings, there was another election in 1992 and you, along with a lot of Democratic women and women in the United States, actually had the wave of women and you all came into Congress. Describe what the politics of that moment were and are they at all similar to what’s happening right now? Because there’s a record number of women running right now.

BOXER: I think we could see a wave of women, the likes of which we have never seen before, and I pray for that. Because you can’t have a representative government if most of the people in it are one gender or the other and we have this amazing opportunity. But I will tell you straight from my heart, the only reason I got elected, this is my belief, is because of the courage of Anita Hill. I would love to say it was my winning personality or my smile. But the bottom line is, people were so shocked when they took a look at that judiciary committee and not one woman on either side of the aisle was on there. And I would point out, out of the 10 Democrats on the judiciary committee today, four are women. Out of the 11 on the Republican side, there isn’t one woman. And I think the Republicans are going to pay a price for it. You know, some of them were there for Anita Hill and they’re still being obnoxious about the issue. For example, Orrin Hatch who really was one of the lead torturers of Anita Hill. The things he said to her were disgusting. He has already decided that Dr. Ford is “mixed up.” Well, let me tell you something, Orrin Hatch is mixed up. He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand it. I predict there will be a huge wave of women, not only because of this incident which is critical but also the #MeToo movement, the women’s march, the fact that we have a man in the White House who said, “It’s fine to grab women by their private parts,” and he has been sued by many a woman. He has nothing but disdain for us. He wants to take away our right to choose. He wants to put us in prison if we get an abortion. This is the moment. And it’s not just about women. It’s about the men who care about women. And I think most men do. So, I think we’re going to see a huge wave of women coming in. That’s my prediction.