Abby Disney, Roy Disney’s daughter, says Kavanaugh hearing triggered abuse trauma
Filmmaker Abigail Disney, daughter of longtime Disney company exec Roy E. Disney, spoke frankly about her own experience with abuse after Thursday’s Brett Kavanaugh-Christine Blasey Ford senate hearing. In a confessional Twitter thread, she said that Kavanaugh’s “rage and entitlement” reminded her of her own father.
Saying first that, “In all seriousness, I feel for Dr Ford, I have experienced sexual assault,” Disney added that “nothing has been as triggering for me” as Kavanaugh’s behavior during the hearing. “I had an angry, alcoholic father. He had an inside face and an outside face,” Disney said.
Kavanaugh addressed questions about his drinking during the senate hearing, but said repeatedly that he does not have a problem.
Her father, Disney said, could present a “lovely, sweet” face to the world if needed, and was not constantly mired in rage. “But,” she said, “when he did rage it was terrifying.”
“Generally what would send him into a rage was the same thing that sets off Judge Kavanaugh,” she continued. “Our crimes were mostly thought crimes.” What linked them, she said, was when her father “felt that his status and entitlement were being threatened or questioned.”
Disney was careful to make it clear that her father never hurt her physically. “But when you are six and your father rages, it feels that way, believe me,” she continued, likening what she saw as a child to Kavanaugh’s demeanor Thursday.
Disney made it clear that her father eventually got the help he needed to change. Not just for his addiction, she said, but also for “his sense of his own rank and entitlement. He needed to come to an understanding that he was just a man, and was not owed more than every one else around him.”
” He did change and that’s an incredibly powerful and amazing thing,” Disney continued. She then said she believes Kavanaugh needs similar help, and urged the senate not to confirm him. See her entire thread below.
2) He could make anyone believe he was a lovely, sweet, gentle man. If he'd been a Federal Judge, I am sure the ABA would have said nice things about him too. He did not rage every day, or about everything. But when he did rage it was terrifying.
— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) September 27, 2018
4) was that he felt that his status and entitlement were being threatened or questioned. Watching Judge Kavanaugh today I feel six years old again. I feel like a little girl watching her father purse his lips, as Judge Kavanaugh does. watching his face redden…
— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) September 27, 2018
6) I can tell you from hard won, painful, traumatic life experience. This man is an inappropriate choice for the Supreme Court. He is inappropriate for any court. My father did eventually get help and he changed.
— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) September 27, 2018
8) more than every one else around him. He did change and that's an incredibly powerful and amazing thing. Judge Kavanaugh needs help. It is not an attempt at slander to say I feel sorry for his daughters. It is an expression of genuine empathy and concern.
— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) September 27, 2018
10) over his character that no decision from here forward can ever go unquestioned. Please, do the right thing. This performance is disqualifying. Please do not confirm this man.
— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) September 27, 2018
