Watch CBS News

Top U.S. Politicians Stand With Stanford Sex Assailant's Victim, Call For Judge's Removal

SAB FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- At least one member of Congress is now calling for the removal of the judge who gave convicted sex assailant and ex-Stanford University student Brock Turner a six-month jail term.

Republican Congressman Ted Poe (R-Texas) flat out said that the judge got it wrong.

Millions of people have now read the Stanford University sexual assault victim's 7,000-word letter to Turner, spurring an outpouring of support for the victim.

On Thursday, her words were heard inside Capitol Hill, on the house floor.

"My damage was internal, unseen and I carry it with me. You took away my safety, my intimacy, my confidence and my voice," the victim's letter states.

Poe demanded Turner's "lenient" sentence be overturned and asked Californians to oust the judge who handed it down.

"Speaker the punishment for rape should be longer than a semester in college," Poe said.

Vice President Joe Biden has been an outspoken voice to stop sexual assaults on campus and on Thursday, the vice president wrote an open letter to Turner's victim.

Read Also: Vice President Biden Writes Open Letter To Stanford Sexual Assault Victim

"I am filled with furious anger that this happened to you and that our culture is so broken that you were ever put in the position of defending your own worth," Biden wrote in the open letter.

"I do not know your name, but I know that a lot of people failed you that terrible January night and in the months that followed," Biden wrote.

Biden also called out Turner's father by telling the victim, "you will never be defined by what the defendant's father has callously termed '20 minutes of action.' His son will be."

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.