Other quotes by another US Senator Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Ha:
“I just want to say to the men in this country, 'Just shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change,'" "Not only do women, like Dr. Ford, who bravely comes forward, need to be heard, but they need to be believed.”
Therefore, men are automatically guilty until proven by themselves innocent. Men are inherently guilty and every woman must be believed.
On Kavanaugh's denial of the allegations against him Sen Hirono continues:
"I put his denial in the context of everything that I know about him in terms of how he approaches his case,"
These are elected Senators folks.
When people say "believe women", they don't mean to automatically believe the man is guilty. They mean to consider that they have credible claims so it is safe to come forward. If the default reaction is that she was a harlot, asking for it, lying etc we are going to have sexual predators running around who could harm another woman. The point is to provide support to tell their story and while it is investigated.
As for the accused, they also need to be protected, these types of accusations can whisper follow someone for life. AL Franken denied the allegations and asked for an investigation over what he did as a comedian for jokes, but was ran out before that could happen, and the fact that he didn't attack his accuser, just said he remembered differently, was seen as an admission of guilt, and that was not the case. She said he wrote a skit requiring a kiss which she didn't like, and he took a pic with his hands hovering over her chest which had a vest on if I recall, not actually touching her and no where near an attempted rape. We need to work out a better wa to do this, because AL tried to be sensitive and let the woman be heard, and it worked against him.
I had a friend whose brother had touched her. She worked up the nerve to tell her mother, whose reaction was to cuss her out, call her a liar, and throw her out the house. That is what we don't want, we want women to be heard and to know they are being taken seriously and not dismissed.
My brothers ex girlfriend had mental issues. Claimed everybody was molesting their kids. Tried to get custody of the kids of several families, always accusing someone in charge of them of sexual assault. When my nephew and his family had to stay with us for a while to get back on their feet, we had children services out at least 3-4 times and she was calling the police every other week. A neighbor's kid was crying outside once and she called the police and told them a child was being raped on their front porch. I used to babysit my friend's daughter, she told my friend we were molesting her daughter. Now my friend had grown up with us and knew our family well, but she still had to ask her daughter about it, because she would not be a good mother otherwise. Years later, when her daughter was grown and we had to go to court over yet another accusation, her daughter told her, "mommy you know that never happened", but she still needed to investigate when the accusation was first made. Ultimately the court declared his ex vexatious where she can't file charges without consent and we ended up with a restraining order against her.
There are people who lie all the time. Kids who cry rape because their parents catch them having sex. Women who get mad and try to destroy a man. Women who try to make the most outlandish accusation for revenge. This is not the majority of accusations. However we don't want to repeatedly violate and traumatize true victims because there are a few liars out there.
IMO, rape cases should be handled the way child complaints are, investigate them as if they could be true for the protection of the child/public.
Lastly, there are a bunch of compaints I read all over social media abbout the #metoo movement, and how it automatically assumes the man is lying. In the majority of these cases, the accusations have been true. Once one woman comes forward, other women who realize they won't have to stand alone or who know the first accuser is telling the truth and don't want to see her stand alone, get the courage to come forward also. It hasn't been a witch hunt, there has been actual crimes comitted.
