Anti-Kavanaugh Protesters Arrested at Joe Manchin’s Office

Nine protesters were arrested Tuesday at the Charleston, West Virginia office of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., during a sit-in urging him to vote against the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

The protesters arrested at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday were the remnants of a larger group of 18 women who arrived at the senator’s campaign office at 2 p.m. Monday, according to the Democratic Socialists of America, whose members in West Virginia helped to organize the demonstration.

They had spent the day on Monday broadcasting their sit-in on social media, sharing their stories of sexual violence and encouraging people to donate to REACH, a local organization that provides free counseling services to victims of sexual abuse.

The Manchin campaign said it eventually asked the protesters to leave the office “after a long discussion” but had not asked for them to be arrested.

“When the protesters would not leave, the police escorted them off of the property,” the campaign said in a statement.

The protesters were arrested, given summonses for trespassing and released at the scene, the Charleston Police Department said in a statement.

Emily Comer, 28, who was one of the nine women arrested, said the protesters wanted Manchin to commit to voting against Kavanaugh, who is facing allegations he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford, a college professor in California, when they were both teenagers and questions about his credibility in testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Manchin has said he is awaiting the completion of an FBI investigation before he decides how to vote.

“We told him we didn’t need an FBI investigation to believe Dr. Ford, and we didn’t need an FBI investigation to look at Kavanaugh’s judicial record, which is clearly very against women,” Comer said. “That should be more than enough evidence for Sen. Manchin to vote no on Kavanaugh.”

The women said if Manchin votes to confirm Kavanaugh to the court then they would recruit a “pro-woman” primary challenger to face him in the future — in the event that he wins re-election in November.

Manchin is one of a handful of Democratic senators representing states that President Donald Trump won by large margins in 2016, and he is facing a re-election battle against West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican.

Comer said Manchin spoke to the protesters on a conference call shortly before midnight Monday. In a statement, the Manchin campaign said that he spoke with protesters “to listen to their stories and views on Brett Kavanaugh.” But Comer said they also told him their own stories of sexual abuse.

“I asked him, ‘Do you believe our stories?’ and he said yes,” Comer said. “Then I said, ‘Do you need an FBI investigation to believe our stories?’ And it felt like he didn’t know what to say to that.”

In June, before Blasey’s allegations were made public, Manchin was the first Democrat to meet with Kavanaugh. In its statement on Tuesday, the campaign said the senator would “make his decision after he has all of the facts and the FBI finishes its investigation.”

Last week, just before the Judiciary Committee was to vote on whether Kavanaugh’s nomination would advance to the full Senate for approval, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., was confronted in an elevator on Capitol Hill by two women who urged him to oppose the nomination and shared their stories of sexual abuse.

Soon after, Flake voted to move ahead with Kavanaugh’s nomination, but asked that the Senate delay its vote by a week until the FBI investigation could be completed.