Appearing Wednesday on CNN, progressive activist Stacey Abrams reiterated her support for former Vice President Joe Biden and rejected a feminist author’s challenge to denounce his likely primary victory as the product of “white capitalist patriarchy.”
A transcript is as follows:
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You have said you believe [Biden’s] denial. I want to though put to you what a very prominent feminist writer has written about the dilemma, okay? This is Rebecca Traister, who has written in The Cut at the end of April: “We don’t have a system or a culture in the United States that would permit a running mate to say, I am deeply troubled by the allegations persuasively leveled against my running mate, Joe Biden, and wish we didn’t live in a world in which we had to choose between an accused rapist and self-confessed grabber versus an accused harasser who’s now been credibly accused of assault, but this is what white capitalist patriarchy does and I’m actually here to try to change that!” That’s a pretty gutsy, out there way of saying what a vice presidential female candidate should maybe say to these allegations or to what is going on in our society. What do you say to that?
STACEY ABRAMS: I have the deepest respect for Rebecca Traister and the work that she does and the lens that she puts on the challenges that face women in the public space. And journalists are going to ask the questions that they ask. I can only answer for myself and I can only answer based on what I know. I know Joe Biden. I believe him. I am very pleased he offered a credible and strong rebuttal and that he directly addressed these issues. But more importantly, I think what we have to focus on is that there needs to be a process, a process for survivor justice. And that process does not currently exist in our politics or in our communities. That has to be the focus going forward, so we can ensure this doesn’t become a political argument, but really becomes one that focuses on the need for survivors and creates a process to have their concerns and their needs met.