Republican Senate nominee says women who used to be 'tougher' have taken the #MeToo movement too far

A Republican senate candidate has come under fire for suggesting that women “used to be tougher” before the #MeToo movement.

GOP North Dakota candidate Kevin Cramer appeared on Fox and Friends, where he spoke about his opponent, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, and her decision to vote no on Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Heitkamp’s vote had been based on allegations that the Supreme Court judge sexually harassed three women, including Christine Blasey Ford who gave testimony, in high school and university.

Cramer, a firm Kavanaugh supporter, told host Brian Kilmeade that he had been “surprised” by her decision and endorsed him as a great candidate for North Dakota.

It was at this point in the interview Kilmeade brought up #MeToo, mentioning Cramer’s New York Times interview, in which he slated the global women’s rights movement.

Referencing the interview, in which Cramer claimed women aren’t as “tough” as they used to be, Kilmeade asked: “You brought up the #MeToo movement. You think it’s gone too far and you think generations in the past, in your family, women were tougher, they were raised on the prairie. Do you want to expand on that?”

Cramer agreed, arguing that women are taking the movement “too far."

Women who come forward with sexual assault experiences after remaining silent – sometimes for years – due to fear of repercussions and judgement brought about by an inherently patriarchal society

He said:

Well, sure. I think what’s happened is the zeal of the movement has gone too far, to the point where they are accosting male members of the United States Senate in the Capital in elevators. And then they cry victim as soon as they are spoken back to.

And what happens when they do that is they actually damage their own cause. Oftentimes the left does that, they go too far, they exaggerate. Again, their zeal gets the best of them.

His sentiments echo those of Donald Trump, who recently lamented that it's a "scary time for men in America", with people online quick to point out it is a scary time for rapists and sexual predators.

During his interview with Times, Cramer framed sexual assault survivors in an unflattering light and questioned “that you’re just supposed to believe somebody because they said it happened."

Men should probably stop talking about how women feel and leave women to talk about their own experiences.

And men should probably listen to accounts of sexual assault and become allies rather than critics.

Just a thought.

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