Through all of the other scandals that have come to define the Trump administration in the year or so that it’s been in power, there remains the fact that the current commander-in-chief has been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women.
The “#MeToo” movement has brought down an array of powerful men in response to stories of sexual misconduct perpetrated by them, and yet through it all, Donald Trump remains the president of the United States. He has not yet experienced the fall that others like Harvey Weinstein have.
This week, The Washington Post published a story highlighting the experiences of one of the women who’s made allegations against Trump of misconduct. Rachel Crooks says that while working as a receptionist for a company occupying space in Trump Tower back in 2006, she decided to introduce herself to Trump, and that’s when he forced himself on her and kissed her right on the lips for what she says felt like could have been as long as two minutes.
Trump is furious at The Post having printed this story.
In an angry Tuesday morning Twitter rant, he denied the allegations against him, but he didn’t stop there. He went on to imply that Crooks has been paid to “make up” her story of abuse at Trump’s hands.
He began his rant by writing:
‘A woman I don’t know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security cameras running.’
That’s his defense? Seriously? He didn’t say — “I would never force myself on a random woman who I’d just met for the first time.” Instead, he said: “I would never force myself on a woman with cameras running?”
Is he aware of how guilty that makes him look? Or does he just not care? Many of his supporters will probably eat it up, so the sorry excuse for a defense accomplishes his purposes.
He went on to add:
‘Another False Accusation. Why doesn’t
@washingtonpost report the story of the women taking money to make up stories about me? One had her home mortgage paid off. Only@FoxNews so reported…doesn’t fit the Mainstream Media narrative.’
To be clear, there remains no evidence that any woman has ever been paid — by any reputable, known source at least — to make up a story of sexual misconduct suffered at the president’s hands.
What Trump is referring to here — something that contrary to his remarks, news media organizations like The New York Times covered — is the fact that attorney Lisa Bloom facilitated one of her clients, Jill Harth, to have her mortgage paid off. That payment, and associated offers for payment from Democratic donors, came in the midst of questions about the safety of Trump’s accusers.
Bloom commented:
‘As an attorney I was obligated to relay those offers of funds for relocation to a safer community and round the clock security, and I was happy to do it. And I offered what people come to me for — my opinion and advice. My clients wanted to tell their stories, and now here was a safer way to do it.’
The only fully true part, then, is the fact that one of the women accusing Trump of misconduct had their mortgage paid off. That payment came in Harth’s case years after she first made her allegations against the president.
Trump’s defense, then, has fallen apart again. It’s not the first time that this has happened, either. He claimed recently to not know any of the women who have accused him of misconduct.
Numerous interests quickly followed up the president’s attempt at a defense by digging up evidence to the contrary including a prominent photo of him with one of the women.
Concurrent to all of this, the president also continues to face accusations of extramarital affairs with women including Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels.
Check out Twitter’s response to the president’s latest take on all of this below.
Featured image via Getty/Bloomberg
