Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is trying to recover from her vote against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee by standing up for victims of sexual assault, but the North Dakota Democrat’s efforts backfired Tuesday when she had to apologize for identifying victims without their permission in a recent campaign ad.
Some of the women her ad identified say they weren’t even victims of domestic violence or sexual assault. Others say they don’t support her campaign.
Ms. Heitkamp admitted the bungle in a statement Tuesday, blaming victim advocates for feeding her wrong information.
“I deeply regret this mistake and we are in the process of issuing a retraction, personally apologizing to each of the people impacted by this and taking the necessary steps to ensure this never happens again,” she said.
It was yet another stumble for Ms. Heitkamp, who has seen her poll numbers tank as she sided with national Democratic leaders in voting against Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. – READ MORE