Washington: Donald Trump's lawyers will be in a funk – last week their client paraded several women who accuse Bill Clinton of treating them inappropriately, and demanded that their stories be heard; but on Thursday, Trump launched a searing attack on several women who accuse him – Trump – of treating them inappropriately, and who want their stories to be heard.
And some in Trump's campaign are in a funk – they've revealed that Trump rebuffed their attempts at standard campaign practice, which is to research a candidate's past so that they might mount a counterattack in the event that, oh, say something like the "grab them by the pussy" video surfaced or a small army of women shared stories of a candidate abusing them.
More News Videos
- Video duration
- 02:15
Trump: 'These claims are are all fabricated'
- Video duration
- 01:51
Former 'The Apprentice' contestant accuses Trump
- Video duration
- 02:28
Michelle Obama slams Trump's treatment of women
- Video duration
- 00:38
Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej dies, aged 88
- Video duration
- 00:45
Boko Haram frees 21 kidnapped girls
- Video duration
- 00:29
Hurricane Nicole batters Bermuda
- Video duration
- 00:36
Jubilant migrants cheer as they enter Europe
- Video duration
- 00:54
Clinton: 'Everyday, the stakes get higher'
Trump: 'These claims are are all fabricated'
Saying "these claims are pure fiction and they're outright lies" Donald Trump denies allegations of sexual assault during a rally in the battleground state of Florida.
Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway definitely is in a funk – between the emergence of the video and the first of the new women's allegations of abuse by Trump, Conway thought she was skewering Hillary Clinton but, ooops, she stabbed Trump too, by re-tweeting a Clinton tweet: "Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported."
RT if you agree. "Every" the operative word here. https://t.co/hqvij2DPjA
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 10, 2016
Lawyers at The New York Times are not in a funk.
But there's a rumour, they had great difficulty keeping straight faces, as they replied to Trump's threat to sue over publication of the stories of two women – the gist of their response being, that a man who admits to grabbing unsuspecting women by the genitals; to barging in on naked and half-naked beauty pageant contestants; and who goes along with a radio shock-jock's request to describe one of the Trump daughters as "a piece of ass," doesn't have a reputation to protect.
The several iterations of Trump's campaign management sought, but always failed to get the candidate's agreement that they investigate his past, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Corey Lewandowski, his first campaign manager who now is a CNN analyst, wanted Trump to submit to a forensic evaluation – no; his successor Paul Manafort insisted to the point of it becoming a divisive issue – still no; old guard Trump advisers Roger Stone and Michael Cohen thought it would be a good idea – Trump didn't.
And it seems Conway made no headway either – this week, she told Fox News "There's no way for me to know what is and isn't out there."
The extent of research into Trump's past by others among the 17 contenders for the GOP nomination is not known. But the Republican National Committee is understood to have researched them all – but the "grab them by the pussy" video was not discovered
Early on Thursday Trump was active on Twitter and his surrogates were doing the rounds of the media. Mostly angry old white men, they didn't seem to appreciate the gravity of the charges, dismissing them in harsh and condescending disbelief.
Donald Trump Jr, the candidate's son went boldly into North Carolina radio studio, where he bravely argued that his father's admission to being a sexual predator made him, um, human.
He said: "I've had conversations like that with plenty of people where people use language off colour. They're talking, two guys among themselves. I think it makes him a human. I think it makes him a normal person, not a political robot."
Trump spokesman Jason Miller thought it was outrageous "to reach back decades in an attempt to smear Mr Trump" – yes one of the new wave of complaints was more than 30 years old, but others were more recent. And Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich was quite appalling, tweeting: "The New York Times goes back over 30 years to find somebody who had a bad airplane flight..."
But here's the thing – Trump has gone back as far as the 1970s, to build his dirt file on the Clintons. And there's a "gotcha!" moment here too – a striking aspect of the new stories by women in various publications, is the extent to which what they allege is confirmed by Trump's own admissions in the video and in CNN's compilation of the worst of 17 years of Trump's sexist trash talk with his radio buddy Howard Stern.
Apart from all Trump's bluster, a difficulty for his team in attempting to deny the women's stories, is that his serial admissions in the video and on radio resonate so powerfully with what the women say. Further, his absolute denial in Sunday's candidate's debate, that he had ever behaved as he says he does in the video, robs him the option to use a common political defence – to admit to aspects of the allegations in the hope that the remainder might be swept under the carpet.
And if he has been going on, and on and on and on about the right of Bill Clinton's accusers to be heard on events that happened decades ago, that someone had a bad airplane flight doesn't sound like a reason for them not being heard.
On Thursday, The Huffington Post aired yet another woman's story, that of food entrepreneur Lisa Boyne, who told of a mid-1990s incident in which she and other women were at a restaurant with Trump and modelling agent John Casablancas.
As told by Boyne, the party was at a semi-circular table – with the women in the middle and Trump and Casablancas at either end. The women were unable to leave their seats without either of the men standing up – which they refused to do.
Trump had insisted that the women get up on, and walk across the table – during which Trump "stuck his head right underneath their skirts", and commented on whether they were wearing underwear and about their genitalia.
Separately, a former Miss USA contestant told CNN that Trump personally inspected each woman prior to the contest, to the point where it was "the dirtiest I felt in my entire life." She said.
Samantha Holvey, the 2006 Miss North Carolina who at the time was a 20-year-old student at a private Southern Baptist college, said: "He would step in front of each girl and look you over from head to toe like we were just meat, we were just sexual objects, that we were not people. You know when a gross guy at the bar is checking you out? It's that feeling."
At a Thursday rally in Florida, Trump did himself no favours in the manner in which he spoke of the women – going to his usual corner of the dictionary, to making it all very personal.
"You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. You tell me what you think. I don't think so," he said, referring to People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff, who wrote about Trump kissing her without her consent and insisting they would have an affair, at his Mar-a-Lago resort when they were alone midway through an interview with him and his wife, Melania, in 2005.
Trump called his accusers "horrible, horrible liars". He claimed he could prove their accusations to be false. He made no effort to do so, he insisted: "We already have substantial evidence to dispute these lies, and it will be made public in an appropriate way and at an appropriate time, very soon."
There was confusion on Thursday about who the real Donald Trump is. His surrogate Gingrich, a former House Speaker, a one-time presidential wannabe and an aspirant to being Trump's running mate, told Fox News: "There's a big Trump and a little Trump – the little Trump is frankly pathetic."
In the week since publication of the "grab them by the pussy" video, Trump has been refining his counter-attack, with the candidate, maybe the little guy, and his surrogates naming and shaming others who are responsible for what Trump did.
But it's been a scattergun affair, as revealed in this list of likely suspects compiled by The Washington Post's Catherine Rampell:
- it's Bill Clinton's fault
- it's hip-hop's fault
- it's rap music's fault
- it's Beyoncé's fault
- it's Hollywood's fault
- it's "Fifty Shades of Grey"'s fault
- it's "Magic Mike"'s fault, or maybe "Twilight"'s fault
- it's the Jews' fault
- it's all normal men's fault
- it's still Bill Clinton's fault
- it's Barack Obama's fault
- it's Democrats' fault
- it's Paul Ryan's/establishment Republicans' fault
- it's King David's fault
- it's locker room banter
- he said it in an actual locker room (he didn't)
- it wasn't really Trump on the tape (it was)
- it was "more than a decade ago"/11 years ago-vulgar talk about assaulting women is much too rare, so we're not used to it
- Trump has an "alpha personality"
- grabbing women by their genitals without their consent is not sexual assault
- it is sexual assault, but Trump was probably lying about doing it
- ladies out there, this is what guys talk about when you're not around
- it's machismo's fault
- it's bad boys' fault
- Trump was "marinated" in "pop music and a sex-crazed culture"
- it's better to have a president who grabs female genitalia than a president who has female genitalia
- ISIS is worse
Despite his extraordinary conduct throughout Thursday, Trump did pull one punch – his Fox News pet, Sean Hannity, scheduled an hour-long "special" in which Trump was to appear, featuring three Bill Clinton accusers who Trump paraded before the October 9 presidential debate – but without explanation, the GOP candidate opted not to participate.
In closing we need to report a theft – the T, R, U, M and P keys seemingly have been lifted from the laptop of RNC chairman Reince Priebus. He claims to be one of the few senior Republicans still supporting the candidate, but an emailed plea for help from supporters, in which he declares "the future of our great country... is at stake" he was unable to mention the name of its saviour.
55 comments
New User? Sign up