Woman Who Confronted Flake on Elevator Speaks Out on CNN: ‘I Wanted Him to Be a Hero’

On Friday, Ana Maria Archila spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper about why she decided to confront Sen. Jeff Flake.

Earlier today, Archila was one of the women who confronted Flake as he got into an elevator before he headed to the Judiciary Committee to vote on advancing the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh forward to a full Senate vote.

The activist from Queens first told Cooper that it all started when they saw Flake headed towards the elevator and they ran behind him.

“It was a very kind of intense moment of really wanting to talk to him,” she explained. “I was not really prepared even for my own emotions, but I felt like he really needed to hear. Like he needed to understand that women feel incredibly enraged about the thought of our stories, of our experiences of surviving sexual violence being dismissed, laughed at, disbelieved. And I think we — I just felt a great sense of urgency.”

“Did you feel like he wanted to kind of hope the elevator doors closed?” Cooper then asked. “Did you think he wanted to stay longer? What was your impression?”

In response, Archila said this: “No, no, no. He wanted those elevator doors to close and that conversation to end. And I wanted of him to really stay there and be present and think of the people he loves, think of his children, and I wanted him to be a hero, to show up for his children, for my children, for myself, for Maria, for the women that have been telling our stories, and to vote with his conscience. And I wanted him to — I had gone to his office because I thought he might — he might be willing to take a step that was beyond, you know, kind of the desire of his party.”

Watch above, via CNN

[image via screengrab]

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com