Brigid Flaherty: Women Rise up to Protest Trump's Boast of Sexual Assault and GOP's Legacy of Sexism

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

Thank you for donating

If you've made a donation and wish to receive thank you gifts for your donation, be sure to send us your mailing address via our Contact form.

See our thank you gifts for your donation.

The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

Subscribe to our Weekly Summary & receive our FREE Resist Trump window cling

(Car window cling)

Email us with your mailing address at contact@btlonline.org to receive our "Resist Trump/Resist Hate" car window cling!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

BTL Blog

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Special Programming

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Progressive Resources

A compilation of activist and news sites with a progressive point of view

Share this content:

|

Subscribe to BTL

Podcasts: direct or via iTunes

Subscribe to Program Summaries, Interview Transcripts or Counterpoint via email or RSS feed

If you have other questions regarding subscriptions, feeds or podcasts/mp3s go to our Audio Help page.

Between The Lines Blog

Stay connected to BTL

Learn how to support our efforts!

Tweets by @BTLRadioNews

Women Rise Up to Protest Trump's Boast of Sexual Assault and GOP's Legacy of Sexism

Posted Oct. 26, 2016

Interview with Brigid Flaherty, organizer with the grassroots group, “GOP: Hands Off Me!”, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

The political environment in the U.S. presidential election campaign began shifting after the release of a video recording in which Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women. “When you’re a celebrity, they let you do it,” he said. The video clip, where Trump boasted about kissing, groping and attempting to have sex with women, was recorded in a 2005 conversation with “Access Hollywood” TV show host Billy Bush, which was captured on a live microphone. Since the release of the tape more than 10 women have publicly accused Trump of engaging in harassment and sexual assault over the last decade or more.

Some Republican elected officials who had endorsed Trump disavowed him, while many others have maintained their support for his candidacy. Accusations that he had harassed mostly white women brought the issue closer to home for many white politicians, who could imagine their wives or daughters being similarly assaulted.

First lady Michelle Obama’s heartfelt, unscripted nine-minute speech about Trump’s behavior went viral, in which she said the men in her life – and the men in millions of other women’s lives – don’t engage in the kind of so-called “locker room banter” that Trump alleged this was. Another response to the scandal was a grassroots uprising of women who demonstrated on Oct. 18 in 15 cities under the slogan, “GOP: Hands off me.” They excoriated Trump and demanded that the Republican party withdraw their endorsement of the real estate billionaire. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with one of the action’s organizers, Brigid Flaherty, who explained how the simultaneous demonstrations were organized and their plan of action after the Nov. 8 election.

BRIGID FLAHERTY: This really is a grassroots, organic response – definitely prompted by the Trump tapes being released last week, but I think also women who have been outraged since the first time Trump made an outrageously racist and sexist comment, which was that all Mexicans are rapists, right? For some time now, for his entire run for the presidency, there has been anger brewing and a fight back brewing. Women across all races. And I think the Trump tape was the spark that ignited women taking to the streets and really saying that we are not going to stand for a president, but also a system, that is building its power and policies off of racism and sexism.

It was definitely this moment when a couple of friends got on the phone and said, we have to respond and we have to get out there, and really show that there is a multi-racial feminist movement that is emerging and growing, and really taking its power from the other organizing that has happened before, particularly with women of color, in racial justice spaces – Black Lives Matter, Mi Gente – but this was really just a moment of saying, we’re pissed.

BETWEEN THE LINES: But you’re not just focusing on Trump, right?

BRIGID FLAHERTY: GOP Hands Off Me is really just an expression of rage against the entire Republican Party – all of their electeds who basically made Trump, right? Trump was created by the Republican Party, by their policies and practices over so many years of misogyny and racism and anti-immigrant hatred, and that’s why we’re directing it at Trump, but also at the Republican Party because of their role and the responsibility they have in this moment, creating this man, who literally embodies everything terrible about this system.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Brigid Flaherty, tell us what happened across the country when women came out for these actions.

BRIGID FLAHERTY: On Oct. 18, thousands of women across the country did GOP: Hands Off Me actions in 15 cities. You saw them in smaller places like Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and then you had New York City, Miami, Philly, Oakland, Denver – thousands of women taking to the streets, multi-racial feminist wave of action demanding the GOP take their hands off them and create a world that values women – women of color, immigrants, trans and queer folks.

BETWEEN THE LINES: When you focus on criticizing the Republican Party, does your movement take any position on the election, or on the Democratic Party?

BRIGID FLAHERTY: You know, I like to say that rape culture is a bipartisan problem. This is not something that is unique to the Republican Party and we know that (inaudible) have also been complicit in creating a culture that doesn’t respect women and have created policies that in particular have hurt women of color and immigrants. But for right now, we are very focused on ending the racist and sexist reign of the Republican Party and making sure Trump doesn’t get into office. But you can believe that when anybody gets into office, whether at the state level, the federal level or president after Nov. 8, that there’s a movement of women that will hold them accountable for creating a world that values women of color, that values immigrants, that values queer and trans folks. And that’s what we’re going to be doing after Nov. 8.

BETWEEN THE LINES: You said it was very grassroots and individuals got together. Is there any organization that contributed to making this happen?

BRIGID FLAHERTY: I would say that the women who got on the phone that Friday night, we come out of a tradition of organizing. We’ve all been organizing for many years, again, in racial justice and gender justice and immigrant justice movements. It’s women who have been active in organizing and have built relationships for decades. But, really, the moment we’re in now and the uprising of women that you’re seeing is truly just – we created a container for women to come in and heal in a space and be seen by each other, but also express their rage, and that is truly a grassroots movement.

For more information, visit GOP Hands Off Me Campaign at gophandsoffme.org and on Facebook at facebook.com/GOPHandsOffMe.