By Brigitte L. Nacos
For weeks now the shocking news of sexual assault and misconduct by prominent males has been the leading story in news and social media. Women, so the narrative has it, finally dare to speak out publicly and going in droves on record with sickening revelations of unwanted sexual encounters of varying degrees.
As the defiant wife of Roy Moore, Alabama’s GOP candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, noted the other day, nobody talks about Russia anymore, thanks to the fake news of her husband’s alleged sexual misbehavior with very young girls—one merely 14-year old.
She was right. And for that nobody can be more thankful than Donald Trump.
To begin with, Special Prosecutor Mueller’s investigation is closing in on the Trump campaign’s and White House’s inner circles, including family members. It must be a relief to see “the Russia thing” on the backburner of media, elite, and public agenda.
The daily reports about women’s accusations against more prominent men also overshadow by far news about the full content and most unjust consequences of the planned congressional tax reform. It is therefore not surprising that public opinion changed of late from overwhelming rejection to a plurality in favor of tax legislation that is designed to benefit the most wealthy individuals and corporation at the expense of middle and lower classes.
And just in time for Thanksgiving, President Trump returned Mr. Moore’s favor by endorsing him and not precluding his campaigning for the accused. Asked about Moore, Trump told reporters,
“He says it didn’t happen. You have to listen to him, also.”
“I do have to say, 40 years is a long time. He’s run eight races, and this has never come up. So, 40 years is a long time.”
I wonder why anyone can be surprised that Trump defends Moore. After all, Moore is now in the same boat as Trump was during last year’s campaign, when more than a dozen women accused him of the sexual misbehavior. Today, a report in the Washington Post describes the shocking revelations of 13 of these women. Trump threatened to sue them but never did.
Like Trump then, Moore now denies any wrong-doing and attacks the victims accusing them of lying, of being tools of political opponents.
In spite of all the talk about female victims of sexual harassment and attack finally being heard and finally being believed, the elephant in the room is the occupant of the Oval Office. He certainly does not believe women accusing him and Moore or probably any other Republican.
A bunch of prominent men have been credibly accused of sexual assaults and misconduct--from Harvey Weinstein and other influential figures in the entertainment industry and media star Charlie Rose and several of his colleagues to U.S. Senator Al Franken and other politicians. Several of them have not merely lost their reputation but also their jobs and probably their careers forever.
Trump, in contrast, lost nothing. Instead he was voted into the White House.
No wonder that he has the nerve to criticize alleged abusers—as long as they are Democrats acting as if he did not have his own his own ugly history of alleged sexual assaults and if there were not his own lewd descriptions of his behavior towards females.
Ivanka Trump said the other day with respect to Ray Moore that “there is a special place in hell for people who prey on children” and that she has “no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.”
Her Dad, the U.S. president, thinks otherwise.
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