When #MeToo exploded on the national consciousness, I felt like I could breathe. I wasn’t yet ready to tell my own story of sexual assault but found healing in others speaking openly about theirs. Years of the rhetoric of “she was asking for it,” “what was she wearing?” or “I saw her flirt with him once” convinced me my assailant’s words would be believed over mine. A movement built around believing women’s experiences of assault felt desperately needed.

That demand was powerful. Which made the deployment of that demand in service of Elizabeth Warren’s recent bad-faith attacks on Sanders, claiming that he told her in 2018 that he didn’t believe a woman could be elected president, so invalidating. This isn’t just shockingly cynical — it’s a perversion of feminist principles in service of scoring cheap political points.

When people questioned whether or not Sanders had said that a woman could not win the presidency, Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden conflated the skepticism to women being disbelieved for reporting sexual violence, tweeting: “Believe Women. Except when it doesn’t work for your ambition, apparently.” This coming from someone who outed a sexual harassment victim in front of her entire staff. The victim said she was retaliated against within the organization for reporting.