Why Is Alyssa Milano At The Kavanaugh Hearing?

Perhaps once it would have seemed odd to see a woman who came to fame as a sitcom teenager at a hearing for a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, not so much. On Thursday, it made perfect sense that Alyssa Milano was on the Senate floor as a guest of California Senator Dianne Feinstein. She, along with many others, was there to hear Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to testify that nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when they were in high school.

"We’re here to support her and show our solidarity," Milano said, standing next to Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a video tweeted by CNN's MJ Lee. "This can’t be an easy day for her."

Milano has been an outspoken leader in the Time's Up movement, but she has also actively protested Kavanaugh's nomination since before assault allegations against him became public. In a video for NowThis from August, Milano gave monologues from the points of view of people Kavanaugh's decisions would or did affect: a victim of the school shooting in Parkland, FL; the 17-year-old immigrant Kavanaugh helped deny the right to an abortion; and a cancer survivor who wouldn't have health insurance if the government removed protections from those with pre-existing conditions. She asked people to call their senators and urge them to vote "no" on the nomination because of his stance on banning assault rifles, abortion, and health care.

Now that Kavanaugh faces these sexual misconduct allegations, Milano has turned up her protests. She retweeted a Breitbart video showing her with a group of other women protesting at U.S. senate offices on Wednesday. On Thursday, she remained active on Twitter throughout the hearing.

"The @GOP were worried about the optics of a group of men questioning Dr. Ford about sexual assault," Milano wrote, sharing a black-and-white photo of the hearing. "They should have been worried about the optics of a group of men with a lack of humanity not questioning Dr. Ford about sexual assault."

Milano also tweeted at Republican Jeff Flake and Ted Cruz, pleading with them to show Ford "decency" by asking her questions themselves, and then she urged U.S. Senator Susan Collins to postpone the vote on Kavanaugh.

If these pleas and the hearing don't sway the Senate on Kavanaugh, Milano tweeted about another solution just before the hearing. "Women are watching," she wrote. "And we vote."

If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please call theRAINN Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).