Iâm very open to people weighing the possible motivations and actual evidence of any charge (even when it's a friend). I know people don't have the benefit of knowing Lyndsey and having heard about Graham for years from her, as I did.
A problem during the
#metoo era was no one seemed to be using any kind of standard of evaluation that was consistent, which seems important in media. I created one for myself: When I was asked to opine in public on various allegations and wanted to do so responsibly, I had a rubric for considering credibility on a spectrum (and also tried not to be rude and dismissive out the gate of almost anything, with Swetnick testing that with sheer audacity).
â a named accuser
â evidence the two people knew each other and had been in the same place at the same time at the time of alleged event
â contemporaneous reports, though not necessarily to police. Diary entries, conversations with friends, etc.
â a demonstrated M.O. from the accused
Christine Blasey Fordâs account had 1 of these (named accuser). By contrast, accusations against Roy Moore had all four. Lyndseyâs has three (and the second named source's story of him showing up at her house drunk and acting such that she cut off contact with him suggests there is a drunken, boundary-crossing, scary M.O.)
By merely marshaling evidence the two were often in the same place at the same time during the acknowledged past relationship, Fifield has surpassed Ford's account's documentation. The NYT verified old diary entries, and her texts confirmed many of her thoughts on him predated him running for office. She was forthright that she hid his worst behavior, as many women in abusive relationships do, and very specific in her characterization of his physical behavior (one suspects if it were a made-up partisan hit, she might not caveat his physical abuse so much and would have dropped this in September, but I digress). It is both scary and embarrassing to admit the truth in those situations.
This is all separate from what voters might find acceptable, but the account Lyndsey gives is one that, if I knew it in real time, I'd actively help the friend get out of the relationship and advise her to stay out of it. I've done this with other friends and wish I'd been able to be there for Lyndsey at the time. It shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, especially given it hits far more marks than other allegations treated with utmost seriousness in the press. The idea that this is either all merely normie, drunk, working-class behavior or "Dem HR lady politics" to find it problematic doesn't fly. So many people spent two decades saying every dude right of a Wellesley gender politics professor was a toxic white supremacist but now think you're just a big pussy if you'd object to being locked in a bedroom by a big drunk guy with a Nazi tattoo.
The problem with MeToo writ large was that feeding frenzies tend to discard the circumstances of individual incidents and give more weight to the "the dam has broken!" mentality. Some MeToo allegations were robust and credible, and others weren't.