Culture of silence in US Congress cracks as slew of sex allegations emerge

Jackie Speier, the congresswoman from California, was sexually assaulted when a junior political aide in the 1970s
Jackie Speier, the congresswoman from California, was sexually assaulted when a junior political aide in the 1970s Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Jackie Speier was a junior aide in Congress when she was sexually assaulted. New to the world of American politics, she was targeted by a senior colleague. 

“The chief of staff for the member I worked for grabbed my face with his hands, kissed me and stuck his tongue in my mouth,” she recalls. 

Ms Speier was in her twenties, her colleague was in his fifties. It was the 1970s and she decided not to speak out.  

“I didn’t say anything at the time,” Ms Speier told The Telegraph. “But I made a point of never being alone with him again.” 

Decades later, the horror of the incident may not have changed but her position has. Since 2008, Ms Speier has been the congresswoman for California. She is the one in power now and is putting it to use. 

This week, in part thanks to the “Me Too Congress” campaign Ms Speier has launched, the culture of silence around harassment in US politics begun to crack. 

After sweeping the worlds of acting, modelling, media and Westminster, the firestorm triggered by the Harvey Weinstein scandal finally reached Washington DC. 

Dozens of women shared their stories of sex harassment and abuse on Capitol Hill though The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN. 

One woman claimed to have been given a $1,250 bonus from her congressman after being called “hot” and made to twirl in a dress. 

Another described how a senator suggestively stroked her hand as they rode in a politicians-only lift, reserved for congressmen and their staff. 

A third had her clothes tugged by a senior colleague and told to stop “holding out”, while there are claims a “creep list” of the worst offenders is circulating. 

The US Capitol building in Washington, DC
The US Capitol building in Washington, DC Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Some hope Congress has reached a tipping point. "I have been so inspired by the brave women and men who have come forward to share their stories,” Ms Speier says. 

“I know what it’s like to keep these things hidden and to wonder if I was the one who had done something wrong.” Kristin Nicholson, who spent 20 years as a chief of staff and aide in Congress, blames the power imbalance inherent in politics for keeping victims silent. 

“It is very much still a man’s world on Capitol Hill,” she says. “An unbelievable amount of deference is paid to members of Congress.

“Staff leave their identity at the door when they take a job. You become a representative of a member, so it can very be difficult for them to turn the lense on themselves.

“Women shake off a lot of jokes or comments because they don’t want to be accused of not being able to handle it in their roles."

 Jackie Speier
 Jackie Speier Credit: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Sensing a chance for change, Ms Nicholson and another former staffer, Travis Moore, drafted an open letter calling for sexual harassment training in Congress to become mandatory. 

Posting the document online on a recent Monday, the pair hoped for a hundred signatures from other former staffers. By Thursday, they had collected 1,500. 

“I remember sitting at my desk with the document there just mouth open,” Ms Nicholson says, recalling watching her computer as hundreds signed up online. 

Since then, both the Senate and the House of Representatives – the two bodies that make up Congress – have said they will make harassment training mandatory. 

But the rosy picture of advancement is an awkward fit with the other dominant story in American politics this week: Roy Moore. 

The firebrand Republican candidate for an Alabama Senate seat has faced allegations of harassing and abusing teenage girls in the 1970s and 1980s. 

More than half a dozen women have gone on the record, much of the Republican establishment has demanded he quit, but Mr Moore is still in the race, denying all claims and blaming a plot against him

Polls suggest the former judge has dropped behind his Democrat rival just weeks before the vote – in Alabama, the safest of Republican safe seats – but he remains standing, for now. 

On Capitol Hill, more allegations are also expected to surface. Al Franken, the comedian turned Democratic politician, became the first sitting senator to face accusations of harassment. Others could well follow. 

For Ms Speier, there is more to do to help victims speak out. Currently they are forced to spend months mediating with their accuser and thinking in a “cooling off” period before they can lodge a formal complaint. 

She has proposed a law that would create a victims’ advocate, stopping the current imbalance where the accused are given legal support but not their accuser.

Ms Speier hopes that, if successful, others will not feel bound by the silence that followed her assault. “Congress has been a breeding ground for a hostile work environment for far too long,” she says. 

“It’s time to throw back the curtain on the repulsive behavior that, until now, has thrived in the dark without consequences.”

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