Raheem Williams: We Should Reject Heitkamp’s Apology
U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp talks about the prospect of temporarily housing refugee children at the Grand Forks Air Force Base during a recent visit to the Grand Forks Herald Editorial Board. photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
This guest post was submitted by Raheem Williams, a policy adviser for the North Dakota Young Republicans.
Heidi Heitkamp made an embarrassing blunder. In an ad criticizing her opponent’s comments on the #metoo movement, she listed the names of sexual assault and domestic abuse survivors. However, it was later discovered these women did not give permission for her to use their name. Furthermore, some those named denied ever being victimized.
[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]She is willing to do anything and say anything to win. Victims of sexual assault became useful pawns in her attempts to gain more voters.[/mks_pullquote]
With the help of local and national media, Senator Heitkamp would like you to believe that this was just a simple error and lapse in judgment, but it’s clear it was not. Although Heitkamp apologized for releasing the names, she did not apologize for politicizing sexual assault. By what stretch of the imagination would it ever be acceptable to publicly display such a personal and traumatic issue in a partisan political ad.
Heitkamp has built her campaign around the notion of being true to North Dakota and her bipartisan allure. However, it’s clear she cares more about scoring political points than the actual victims of sexual assault. Heitkamp showed her true colors and unwittingly exposed a sinister side of progressive politics. She is willing to do anything and say anything to win. Victims of sexual assault became useful pawns in her attempts to gain more voters. Likewise, in typical leftist fashion, when there weren’t enough real victims to exploit she merely made some up.
Heidi Heitkamp has made it clear; she only cares about the victims of sexual assault when it scores her political points. She warmly embraced Hillary Clinton, a woman who played an essential (and ongoing) role in discrediting and smearing the 12 women who accused her husband of sexual assault and misconduct. Heitkamp is eerily silent regarding the allegations of abuse against Keith Ellison Deputy Chair of The Democratic Party. Likewise, she only turned on Former Senator Al Franken after indisputable photographic evidence appeared.
After announcing her decision to vote “No” on Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, she had no issue believing Dr. Ford, despite a blatant lack of corroboration and evidential support. Under normal circumstances, this would be a reason for pause, especially for a nonpartisan impartial thinker. Unfortunately, these aren’t normal times. Heidi showed North Dakotans her true self with the controversial ad buy and her voting record. She believes all women when it’s politically expedient to do so. Heidi cares about all women only when the party tells her to. She gets her marching orders from the DC not North Dakota.
