Charles,
You "forgot" to mention that by Ms. Carroll's own admission she agreed to go into a dressing room with Mr. Trump to "model" lingerie. Oh yeah, how about the fact that once Trump allegedly began to "force" himself on Ms. Carroll, she didn't scream in a no doubt crowded store where she would be readily heard.
This story has no credibility on its face, particularly since Ms. Carroll decided to go public to sell her book. The only thing that rings true is her admission that she doesn't consider it rape.
9
Whew, Mr. Blow nails it again.
33
Mr. Blow,
You have never said it ( written it) better!
23
As a woman who is was sexually assaulted both as a child by my maternal grandfather and by a date as an adult, I have lived with great pain since Donald Trump’s election. I have been triggered and upset since he announced his candidacy. I find myself vascillating between activism and despair. I know for sure that I have been off the charts anxious. The hardest part is the disregard I feel from his supporters. They seem to not care about his assaults or the women he has assaulted and where this is leading our country.
Clare O’Brien Doyle
Pennington, NJ
60
A sickness has indeed settled on this country. And as Mr. Blow indicates, too many are too willing to sit and wait. I thought a particularly egregious example of this took place on CNN on Monday evening (west coast time). At a point in the transition from Chris Cuomo to Don Lemon, when Mr. Lemon likened Trump to Hitler, Cuomo had to rush to Trump's defense. I thought what he was really defending, though, was the "average American voter." Frankly, Lemon's comparison was and is apt. Hitler didn't start by slaughtering Jews, radicals, gays and others, but it was outcome of his program. And therein lies our problem. There is a logic to what has been set in motion by the election of Trump/Pence. One place that logic could take us is to full-fledged fascism. Trumps "base" is quite willing to go there. Will the Cuomo's of this country then say, "Gee, I didn't see that coming"?
27
I’m afraid that if Trump isn’t held accountable, and all the things that should be public record (such as his income tax filings) are successfully held from view, then regular people will default to seeing all of this as “just politics.” If he is defeated, even soundly, like any other incumbent President, it will simply encourage those who have defended and protected him to continue to lie, cheat and use every illegal and barely legal means available to obstruct the will of the people for the next four years, and then elect a more effective despot in 2024 to do the bidding of oligarchs.
Trump is far too inept to be compared to Hitler. But we must remember that Hitler was legally and democratically elected. That is what can happen when the institutions of a democracy become weak.
24
Enough already! How many women have to come out and state what happened to them before we state the obvious - the man is a dangerous predator and a rapist? It is sickening.
49
Why would Trump's supporters care whether or not he's a serial rapist? As he rightly said, they wouldn't care if he were to shoot someone dead on 5th Avenue.
25
As long as women don't report a rape when it happens, people like Trump will get away scot free...
Years later, when brought to the surface, media attention is all that the women will get...
7
I can't help getting the feeling that Mr. Blow's original copy of this opinion piece started with: Dear Ms. Pelosi, . . .
5
Every person who comments here MUST work hard to defeat the accused rapist in 2020. Sign up at least one new voter who will vote against the accused rapist and vow to sign up another new voter - and so on and so on.
15
To: Al.
It is clear that you have not been inside of Bergdorf Goodman. "Sales staff always in abundance? Hilarious.
20
I’m focusing my anger on Democratic leadership. To cowardly for bold action. They strategize themselves straight into inaction, all the while, this terrible man, this creep continues to rally his followers all the way to 2020 victory.
8
Sadly, rape, or coercion, by males towards females, whether as young children, teenagers, within the family in the case of incest, etc. is so common, that until we realize that, we won't understand why, we absolve males of it, if they are in the same tribe, family, political party, and attack those in the other tribe, political party, etc. This happens so often with high school athletes, college, and professional athletes, with religious leaders, political leaders, that I believe that people just ignore it, until it happens to their daughter, wife, mother, etc., otherwise, not so much. It is little different than murder, etc. I reluctantly voted for Bill Clinton the first time, because I felt that he had a serious sexual problem, and believe, overall his policies were some of the better ones of any President. However, when he had his continued sexual predatory behavior in the White House, and couldn't contain himself, I was done with him. If you don't have a family member, neighbor, or friend, that this hasn't happened too, then you probably have led a sheltered life. Two things we refuse to honestly talk about in America are sex, and sexually transmitted diseases. When we evolve enough to do that, we will begin to eliminate sexually predatory behavior in all instances.
10
Is Donald Trump a rapist?
Hmm, there is a decent amount of evidence to support such. But maybe only some of them are valid. True, he does seem pushy in his daily interactions. That aggressive push probably applies to his sexual conquests, proudly reported in his bus interview with Billy Bush.
Looking back to the Billy Bush interview, one has to believe Trump. If a woman comes forward to say trump was sexually aggressive in their encounter, it all seems too plausible.
8
Share most of sentiments, particularly women trampled on by Trump. After careful examination certain members of the House Republican Caucus and the Senate refuse to acknowledge their mistake. Devin Nunes, Meadows, Jordan, Goodlatte and others began protecting Trump early and often. The Senate leadership steered a course less obvious but just as lethal. AG Barr the latest goalie for the President.
Nothing shakes them even Lindsay Graham falls in line on cue. Accountability begins with accepting responsibility for foisting Trump off on the majority of Americans. Next, to apply rules to him that would apply equally to Obama or George Bush.
Void of principle morally bankrupt are not virtues.
Bitter pill though it might be these would be leaders need to rescue the country by doing their jobs. The burden falls first on them to take responsibility and do their duty to protect and defend the Constitution, not act as bystanders while the wrecking ball is launched by Trump to trash it. Not going to happen, no profiles in courage.
Senator Graham ought to rise to his feet and utter the following: Robert Mueller is a true patriot in every sense of the word. He served his country with honor in the Marine Corps, as FBI Director and as Special Counsel. The work of Mr. Mueller and his staff laid out in granular detail the nefarious acts of Russian trolls on social media and Military Intelligence officers in hacking the DNC and John Podesta. My personal thanks to you.
4
The best characterization of Trump I have seen: desolation.
9
His supporters believe that deregulation- his assault on the environment- and his Supreme Court picks, and his support for Israel are all that matters.
And based on today's Supreme Court decisions, he (and McConnell) gave Republicans a HUGE prize: Gerrymandering that will keep them in power forever,
11
Trump is a predator. We are his prey. Not just women, but all who try to keep a moral center, American values and do not subscribe to his special sadism. With a few word substitutes, this column could just as easily have been about pedophiles/serial rapists, from the chip-away grooming, to the full-blown assaults, from the resistance to seek help to community denial. In just the same way the Vatican turned its back for so long, so, too, do the sanctimonious Christian devotees of Trump. I'm convinced that we will never be able to restore our democracy if Trump is not defeated.
21
The description of Trump's rape was so graphic, I cringed, and have trouble erasing it from my mind. I ask anyone who thinks Trump is ok in any way whether they would leave their daughter or granddaughter alone in a room with this monster. He is disgusting, sick beyond measure, and a shameful stain on our country. He should be charged with the crime of rape, repeated rape, immediately. Forget about lengthy hearings of any kind, etc., he should be charged with sexual crimes and removed from office NOW!
Otherwise, we are telling women everywhere who have been raped and molested to keep it to themselves; that it's ok with us. Keep in mind that 1 in 3 American women will be sexually traumatized in some way during their lifetime.
Horrifying! what has my poor country come to?!
24
The more we learn about Trump, the darker his soul appears. He has not risen to the job. He is trying to bring America down to his level. Americans, you have a big uphill battle ahead and remember that civil protest and your vote count more than ever!
161
What you say speaks of this country as much as it does about the man. We elected him. We, collectively, accept his immorality. Collectively we envy his wealth and that is how we measure whether he is a success. Decency does not matter. Morals does not matter.
What matters is we measure his character by the size of wallet. it is time to reread the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. China's time is near.
4
Yes. And thank you for this op-ed. It’s far past time to hold Trump to account.
13
We elected a rapist! What is wrong with America?
27
How many allegations of sexual assault, obstruction of justice, fraud, etc. against Donald Trump do we have to learn about before someone actually does something about it? Congress is moving forward but at a glacial pace. There are serious allegations against a sitting President in the United States. Representatives, please do your job!
15
The full reality of Bill Cosby's assaults against women was unavoidable once New York Magazine put pictures of 35 of his victims on the front cover. Surely we do not have to wait for another dozen women to come forward, and another photomontage, before we denounce Trump as a predator, unfit not just for public office, but public life in general. Furthermore, Trump already described to Billy Bush his technique for assaulting women. As Maya Angelou said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
15
Really??? This is even less credible than the farcical Christine Blasey-Ford accusations against Kavanaugh. Walk into Bergdorf, anytime during normal business hours. Every floor is full and with sales people all over the place ... This woman has made other crazy accusations; clearly she has some serious emotional problems.
6
Really ???? You believe Trump?
9
In April 2016 a lawsuit was filed by a woman, referred to as Katie Johnson, accusing Trump and billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein of “sexual abuse under threat of harm”. The suit explicitly states that when she was only 13 years old (20 years earlier), Trump and Epstein forced her to engage in “various perverted and depraved sex acts” including rape. Johnson stated that Trump threatened her, just after the rape, that if she were ever to reveal the abuse her family would be physically harmed if not killed. Johnson’s case seemed to be thwarted at every level and, unfortunately, the suit was dropped. Snopes: “She was scheduled to appear at a press conference on 2 November 2016 but didn’t show up, claiming that threats to her life kept her away. She reportedly dropped the lawsuit again on 4 November 2016 for the same reason”.
It is not unlikely that she had a legitimate claim. Although Trump has since distanced himself from Epstein, this is what he had to say about his pal in 2002. “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
I believe Katie Johnson. Trump is a rapist...
To see the transcript of lawsuit and the factual details of the case, visit Snopes https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/06/23/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit/
25
Yes. Yes, he is.
13
Yes. Yes, he is.
12
A rapist, or even a would be one, should not be a politician. He will sell out the entire world, just to protect himself. It takes a lot of power, to get away with it. Rape is an act of power, and they spend the rest of their lives, getting as much power as they can.
11
Why is the title of this essay a question?
We know the answer. He is, and he's gotten away with the crime on a number of occasions. He's gotten away with harassment, his taxes and other scams, with lying, with letting children die, with stirring up the worst in all of us. No more. Impeach or vote out this monster.
http://www.thecriticalmom.blogspot.com
9
Yes, he probably is. What else is new??!!
4
"this allegation, if true, ..."
If only we had a mechanism in this country for such allegations to be investigated. Instead we are subject to histrionics from newspaper columnists, where guilt is simply assumed. That's far more convenient than our justice system, which I suppose we should just scrap.
Do the thought experiment of replacing "Trump" with "Obama". Just imagine the reaction if Obama were accused of rape and sexual assault by 18 (!) women and reacted the way Trump has. This presidency, among other fault lines, has laid bare the total extent of white privilege. It's beyond disgusting.
302
You bet he is, a self-confessed and indubitably accused serial sex offender, who should be a registered sex offender, and now it turns out a brutal rapist, who should at the time have been prosecuted. And now what? Millions of people should be demonstrating in the streets, demanding that a serial sex offender and rapist cannot hold the office of president and should be forced to resign or be impeached and convicted, for these are surely "high crimes" by any definition, after which he should be prosecuted under all applicable statutes of criminal law. And the demonstrations should go on until this is done. It works in other countries and it can work here.
9
Of course he is. A plurality of people voting in 2016 knew him for what he is and rejected him. A minority doesn’t care because he continues to promise pain to brown people.
10
@Charles Blow, yes we are outraged and are looking for our leadership to take a stand and rally the people behind them. But here is "Leader" Pelosi, "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that while she has respect for women coming forward, she’s not focused on the accusations and doesn’t see Congress being involved.
“I haven’t spent any time on that,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday. She said she’s more concerned about immediate policy decisions confronting the nation. “I don’t know what Congress’ role would be in this,” Pelosi said."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/latest-sex-accusation-against-trump-lands-with-a-thud/2019/06/26/aa2bd504-9872-11e9-9a16-dc551ea5a43b_story.html?utm_term=.46b522973d9f
Her take on impeachment? diversionary tactics.
She and her leadership are no different than the former GOP and now Trump Congresspeople, "Job Security."
She is in a powerful position and she wants to hold on to it as long as possible. If she thinks "her" voters are going to wait till 2020 and vote Trump out she might just be wrong. If the House does not take any action towards at least a consolidated hearing on impeachment, I'll be out fishing come election day or vote Third party.
1
Thanks to Mr. Blow for articulating what so many of us are feeling. I accept the premise that the immediacy and personal proximity of this rape (and I absolutely believe Ms. Carroll's accusation) places it in a category apart from the many other sins associated with this administration. Even so, I don't think I can rank it above the massive-scale child abuse happening at our southern border except that responsibility for the latter is diffused among many evil actors. It's all so awful; I feel Mr. Blow's pain coming off the page because I know it well. What I can say for sure is that, in the unlikely event I ever see Mr. Blow in person, I will offer him a hug. The worst may be yet to come, but I know in my heart that there are limits to this metastatic evil and that it cannot win in the long run.
6
Odd....the night this info became public, I happened to see the end of a Law and Oder:SVU episode. The young woman who was abused/raped claimed it was in the fitting room in the lingerie department at a Bergdorf Goodman. Guess shopping at Bergdorf’s presents certain challenges. Then again, I suppose men of privilege may find Bergdorf’s and other high end locations ideal locations to have hunt for prey.
3
The only way I feel we can cleanse ourselves of Donald Trump is soundly defeating him in 2020. Then unleash the judicial powers that be in New York State and the Southern District of New York on everything he and his family has touched. He should not have another restful night’s sleep.
11
Trump rapes the majority of America everyday with the hateful minority cheering. What do you think?
12
Donald Trump is a rapist. He publicly admitted so while being recorded. The fact that a significant number of voters (led by evangelical "leaders" and GOP "leaders" who care nothing about the rule of law or civility) think this is quite appropriate Presidential behavior is the truly disturbing problem. For several decades, Trump has always been a proudly ignorant, lying, cheating, racist, narcissistic sociopath, but these so called "leaders" have enabled this behavior to become normalized and considered acceptable. The President, his enablers, and his pathetic sycophants must all be held accountable.
12
Democrats have blamed the poor showing of HRC in the 2016 campaign, the "deporables" label, condescending liberal attitudes, "fly-over states" kind of snark , etc. for the Trump win. I think these arguments miss the main point.
The main why Trump is president today is that he campaigned hard and unapologetically for the "wall" to be built and 62mm voters in strategically important states agreed wholeheartedly with him on that very point, and perhaps nothing else. In 2016 nothing else mattered to them or even matters more today to his supporters than stopping immigration in its tracks. If that means separating children from their parents at the border to put a dent in the flow of immigrants crossing over, then, so be it. Any means justifies the end. I hear all the time from his supporters "just build the freakin' wall". In 2020 the Dems have their work cut out for them because Trump is still that single-issue candidate that resonates well with 62mm highly-motivated voters.
1
Why is anyone surprised—
He is raping America daily...
11
Mr. Trump has denied the allegation.
If Ms. Carroll's accusation is true, there are only two individuals who really know what actually happened.
1
A number of Trump's spokespeople have said voters knew exactly who Trump was when they chose him. They said the voters knew what he said on tape about assaulting women, they knew he had numerous affairs, they knew he was married three times, they knew many women had accused Trump of assault. This is true and says volumes about Americans. The man they voted for may be a rapist but he will get rid of immigrants, give me a tax cut, nominate the right Supreme Court Justices. They voted for the man who said he could shoot a person on Fifth Avenue and not lose a vote. Trump won because he understands the depths to which the morality of enough Americans has fallen to make him our president.
11
I question all people who give Trump a pass on this to ask this question of yourself:
Would you accept any of the people below who treated women in this manner? I think not.
Why then do you give him a pass when its been proven many times how many lies he has told (over 10K) at last count?
Bank President?
A Doctor or Nurse?
A teacher where your child attends school?
A minister or evangelist or deacon in the church you attend?
Son-in-law? Your child's fiancee or a babysitter?
Any male in your life in a position of trust?
How many more times and how many more women will it take before you say enough?
I see the question, well how could he get into that dressing room with no one there but him and her? Elvis used to do his shopping that way, simply call & say he needed to shop & ask the employees to not be in a certain part of a store. so why, given the reputation that we read Trump had could he not do the same? I don't find that hard to believe at all.
I understand not saying anything for many years, I know many people of both sexes who have not spoken out publicly for much longer. If you haven't been there, you don't have a right to judge whether someone should tell or when they do.
Trumps response to this was his usual: "Not my type". It is despicable, just as all his other responses are to women who accused him of assaulting them.
HE admitted on 'Access Hollywood' what he could do & does do to women.
What more, really,do you need to know about him?
9
Unfortunately, Trump supporters cannot accept anything negative about him, so their response is "she (no matter who she is or what she says) is a liar." End of story. How do you counteract that kind of blind allegiance? I'd love for someone to answer that question...
6
I would bet my socks many times over that he is, and that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Let’s get all the contractors in NYC together and publish volumes on how he defrauded them over the years too, and everyone he bribed, and all the laws he broke. If it puts him where he belongs, it’s worth our time and effort. People like Trump disgrace us all.
9
Wait. A country that was founded on genocide, enslavement, rape, torture, and lynchings supposedly has some kind of moral core? Legacies are handed down in the US. Callousness, hatred, racism, and insensitivity are American-made characteristics. If a country can witness the repeated killings of unarmed black people but side with the cops, what do you expect?
I'm incensed and heartbroken about the separation of children from their families. I'm devastated by the torturous conditions and babies in concentration camps. I have been incensed by the character of America since Trayvon Martin was killed, when I realized that something heinous was afoot in America and would continue to reveal itself.
The foulness of the American spirit gave us Trump. It isn't done with destroying all that's moral and right.
12
Charles we are not sleepwalking, numb perhaps but not sleepwalking. Short of outright murder we have been exposed to so many immoral, indecent, unlawful acts by trump that it becomes impossible to be shocked any longer. We citizens have little recourse. We have been neutered by a system that tells us that we have no power. Only those with wealth have power and matter. This disgusting trend in America did not start with trump. It started with Dick Cheney and Bush. It got worse with Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell and grew into its perfect manifestation in trump.This has been going on now for 15 years. Unforgettably our only recourse is to vote them out. As we witnessed today by the SCOTUS on gerrymandering, no one has our backs,
6
We are being badly let down by Pelosi and Schumer who are playing games by the rules with a criminal who recognizes nothing but his immediate urges.
1
Here's what's really loathsome: people voted for him, knowing who he is and what he does; they have not rescinded their support.
At all.
They haven't reprimanded him on Twitter, haven't called the White House, written emails informing the Oval Office Rapist that they regret their vote, will not give it to him again, will not throw adoration his way at rallies, will not continue to dishonor their faith and dismiss the fundamental dignity of human beings. They will not say that this goes too far-- men and women alike, accepting that this is part of the bargain they struck for righteous revenge or vengeful redemption of a country fallen into its ideals (a biracial man president, his African-American wife our first lady, his children and mother-in-law our first family; marriage equality; women free to claim the right to their own bodies; attention to the ways that Money lays claim to superiority over life, liberty, justice and equity).
This is about a substantial and hateful minority wielding outsized power because the foul institutional safeguards for people who would and do abuse power over other people still work-- an Electoral College, Jim Crow still suppressing the vote, the Massive Resistance campaign still up and running, revitalizing racism, misogyny, xenophobia, internecine hatreds.
What's loathsome is that the Oval Office Rapist has supporters at all. Among the people. That's what's loathsome.
3
I just feel so incredibly powerless--what can I, individually, really do about this catastrophe of a president, other than voting in the 2020 election (which, honestly, won't make a difference in ultra-blue--thank God--Massachusetts) and donating to Democratic candidates and organizations like ACLU and Emily's list? I share Mr. Blow's outrage and fury at the Republicans' willingness to ignore the Trump family's illegal and unethical behavior, but to some extent I have checked out of following politics for self-preservation. I know that holding on to that outrage and anger day after day for years would be detrimental to my mental health. So mostly I just feel devastated for the state of our country, shocked at how far we have fallen since Obama left office, and only mildly hopeful that Democrats can turn things around in 2020. Is there a way to channel this outrage into real action?
5
I respect Mr. Blow's series and perception opinion on the seriousness of Ms. Carroll's accusation. But given the number of women who accused Bill Cosby and how many years and accusations it took to get him convicted of a single sexual assault, it's no shock that even an august publication like the NY Times would downplay yet another accusation against the president. It's also a reflection of how seldom women are believed when it comes to sexual crimes. I wish I had a solution. But the difference between accusing someone of a crime like this and proving it is as wide and nearly unpassable as the Grand Canyon.
1
There's no statute of limitations on rape in most states, and there's nothing that says that a state prosecutor can't indict a sitting president. And I don't believe there's anything at all that says a federal prosecutor can't indict a sitting president, either. There's a self-serving DOJ opinion, not issued by any Attorney General but by a lower-level official, that bootstraps its way into saying, oh, the President's duties are so grave and important, he can't possibly be subjected to an indictment. I'd like to have the Supreme Court rule that the time of a president who spends so much of his time playing golf, showing off his properties, and burning up social media with catty messages, is so precious he can't be indicted.
4
The day Trump was elected was the beginning of the end of the United Stated of America. Yes, the country will still be here. It will be an empty shell of what it has been and what it has meant to us and to the world. How simply we have become so rotten. Is there now any way to be proud to be an American? Think of the immorality and indecency we have shown ourselves to be capable of. No, Mr. Blow, nothing does matter any more. It's too late.
4
Imagine if this accusation had been made against a former president while he (so far) was in office. Outrage would have swelled, he would have been forced to address the issue, might have been forced to resign.
Now, as Mr. Blow notes, it's just another allegation on the pile.
Enough is more than enough. Get out, Mr. Trump. Now. Resign.
9
I always appreciate your writing, so rich in feeling! I think you described your viewpoint as distinctly Southern, and when I read you, I seem to feel the warmth and abundant vegetation, and the history that deserves prophetic talk. So, thank you! E. Jean Carrol remembers she rejected Trump’s advances, so his rape was an act of vengeance against her. People are misled when they think rape is a sexual act — it is battery, assault, against a vulnerable person— so, yes, the rapist is always a coward, e.g. the current occupant of the white house. In last night’s debates, I was struck by a candidate (I think de Blasio?), noting on the question of Iran, the huge number of high level government positions that Trump refuses to fill, and so there is no way to conduct real diplomacy. It came home to me that he is funneling all government functions through himself and family and a couple advisors. He has utterly undermined the landscape of government. That is why I, too, wonder if America is done for. But, I think that people have not lost all courage—perhaps we so angry at both Trump and the country’s Republicans that we are trying to avoid a full-out violent response.
1
I don't like Trump. I also don't believe her. I can do both at once.
2
When I was young I never knew of anyone being raped. As I grew up I learned better. Men or women who question or deny the vivid stories of women who have been raped or who refuse to believe in the horrendous abuse visited upon women by men who not only get away with rape but who prosper and who have served in government at so many levels are as horrible as people who deny the holocaust or as stupid as those who deny the moon landing. The ignorance and denial of the American people has allowed the entitled of this country to wreak havoc and murder here and abroad for most of my life. Considering what appears to be the ignorance and functional illiteracy of a large segment of the American population it is hard to imagine anything improving soon enough to prevent an even more severe disruption in the social fabric needed for a just society.
1
Charles, a man never believed anything against Bill boy, is quick to believe anything against Trump. We know why! Even the woman accused Trump does not believe what she accuses. Of course she had some sexual fantasies as she indicated in the CNN interview and may want to sell a lot of her new books. Probably Charles can help. But one for me as well.
4
Yes, up until today I thought that we could eradicate Trump with the ballot box. But the Supreme Court ruling today that allows gerrymandering to continue just blew a hole in that hope.
I still want to believe that we citizens can create the political will to right the ship. What are we waiting for?
14
Everything has an origin and must come from somewhere and so Trump is not a mushroom grown from nowhere.
He is the product of the cynicism of our society that considers normal to "punish" another state with the millions of people living there with unilateral decisions like "sanctions" the modern form of starving sieges. And it does not matter that the owner of the ship says that it must have been a missile or something from the air because his sailors have seen that. Or that even the Pentagon is not sure about the territorial space...
The cynicism of a Nation that attacks and bombs and massacres million of people forging false accusations by showing a little vial containing baby powder in front of million suckers attached to the TV and the man showing that vial. And what is even worst is that that man that fake the weapons of mass destruction was then treated like a honorable person.
How can people respect the environment when the western woods are just a continuous suburb and so the eastern woods. How can people respect other people when everything is profit and power. Not to talk about the origin of our society, massacres of natives, slavery, child labor.....
3
The last paragraph of Ms. Carroll's article in New York magazine
is worth quoting and ought to be frequently referred to by Democrats in the coming election campaign.
"And that was my last hideous man. The Donna Karan coatdress still hangs on the back of my closet door, unworn and unlaundered since that evening. And whether it’s my age, the fact that I haven’t met anyone fascinating enough over the past couple of decades to feel “the sap rising,” as Tom Wolfe put it, or if it’s the blot of the real-estate tycoon, I can’t say. But I have never had sex with anybody ever again."
11
Unwashed and unlaundered? So there may be DNA evidence supporting the accusation?
3
I feel your frustration, Mr. Blow, but as an independent voter have as much frustration with the Democratic swooning over presidential candidates who are defining themselves with plans and policies, desperate to appeal to the progressive base.
Many of those ideas are not going to play well with the general electorate. But I, and perhaps a significant portion of other more moderate voters, may be willing to backburner concerns over too-liberal policies to support someone who stakes his/her candidacy on restoring morality, character, respect and values to the highest office in the land.
Because the kind of person in that office, whether or not we want to admit it, defines our country and influences all of us. And a demonstrably immoral person in that office, as we have clearly seen over the past two years, gives cover to others to behave as he does.
The only candidate on the debate stage last night to promise to restore integrity to the WH was Amy Klobuchar. To me, the issues discussed pale in importance to that one imperative. And yet Trump, who is a stain on our democracy, was seldom mentioned last night, and not in this context.
Joe Biden began his campaign with a condemnation of Trump's words and actions on Charlottesville. Please God he continues to focus on the pivotal importance of what have long been America's values--until Trump.
Sorry for the length. I truly fear the Democratic candidates are missing the forest for the trees.
Patricia, I hear you, but this is the primary season and with these many candidates the folks are doing all they can to distinguish themselves from the others. I’m a former, life long Republican now Democrat since Bush II. My husband, like you is an Independent and he too, is drawn to Amy Kolbuchar, also Mayor Pete and Cory Booker. This is a pivotal and crucial time for our country and we must unite. We are actually more united than the MSM reports. Sixty seven percent of Americans believe that Trump obstructed justice, that’s a large number. We’ve got to get everyone out to vote, and you are....correct...we must set aside some of the more liberal ideas or plans and choose a candidate that will beat Trump. I have faith that we will.
5
Despite all the allegations, he does not sue. Why is that?
I suspect that a leading Democrat should level the accusation and invite a civil trial for slander where the balance of probabilities could be adjudicated.
8
It is like a search light going round and round so fast it is difficult to to focus on any of Trump's crimes . Therefore, all becomes a blurr and we are focused on nothing at all. We are forced to keep changing our attention from one minute to the next and so we cannot hold onto anything to make a real difference. The search light goes round and round and round. And Trump wins.
4
Where are the protests? And why do people support him, especially those for whom Trump could care less? The Republicans have lost all credibility and have shown themselves to care about money only. The fact that they are public servants doesn't even occur to them. There a many good Democratic presidential candidates running. Choose one and go with it.
7
Through all this, republicans still don't know they're going down with everybody else.
Kellyanne must be made an example, by doing everything legal, including jailing her.
Surely there are enough people who want to follow the law and uphold the Constitution,
Trump's latest accuser, ought to take a lie detector test, and have the results published.
6
Every day that Speaker Pelosi puts off impeachment we lose more pieces of our humanity as a nation and witness more atrocities in the name of democracy as perpetrated by President Trump and Senate Leader McConnell. It is time Now to turn the spotlight on each member of Congress and force them to vote under their oaths of office or Hide from doing so, or we fail as "Citizens" which I consider The highest office under the Constitution.
8
I have always believed that America could survive anything. Assassinations of good men who held hope for the future, unjust wars, a president who broke his vow to uphold the Constitution, racism, sociopaths and bigots with automatic weapons - the list goes on. I still retain a vestige of hope because I have an American heart. But now the country I grew up in, symbolized by the Statue of Liberty, is gone. What used to be a proud Republic is now embodied by the image of a man and his precious little girl face-down in the mud, all for the crime of seeking an American Dream that no longer exists.
President Jimmy Carter has said America is no longer a Democratic Republic but an oligarchy. I see a plutocracy. Most of our so-called leadership has been bought by a cadre of insanely wealthy people and institutions who have made their agenda very clear. If a politician is to stay in office, which seems to be their desire above all else, they will do the bidding of their benefactors or suffer the consequences. Why else would the United States' military budget be seven times higher than budgets of the next seven countries combined? Who is made more secure, us or Lockheed?
Then of course there is our esteemed sociopath-in-chief, the President.
The problem is not, as common wisdom asserts, "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it". It is that we are unable to see when the evils of that past unfold before our very eyes.
Where is our courage?
15
It is the accumulation of abominable behavior that is so
troubling and so numbing. Many many of us are afraid-
disgusted and horrified, but the daily drum beat is hard
to battle when you are trying to live a good life-showing
your kids that this is reprehensible behavior and then it
happens all over again. I really do think we have been let
down by our Congress, but except for the ballot box, we
have nowhere to turn.
10
Carroll now says it was not rape and she did not complain at the time because she felt it was "partially her fault."
It took Carroll an awfully long time to write a sensational article
about the incident.
Why didn't she say anything in public before Trump was elected president?
Is this going to help Trump or hurt him in 2020?
Given the strangeness of the incident, her belated revelations,
and the ambiguities of her telling of it.
2
She said she wants to choose the word. You missed the point entirely. She was raped, but doesn’t want to call it that because it’s a passive word and she FOUGHT. Being penetrated by someone you’re fighting not to be is rape. That’s the law. If you don’t think that, then there’s a problem with you.
It’s not questionable. She told friends at the time. Shame is a normal reaction to rape. She’s never had sex since then - that’s severe trauma.
Don’t you dare question a woman’s refusal to take a painful personal story public and conflate that with doubt that it happened. Would you want to take the most traumatizing story of your life public, especially if you were personally violated? She still has the unlaundered dress, too. It may tell a tale of it’s own if DNA is on it.
4
@Susan Hawkins
Carroll wrote she went into the dressing room alone with Trump and takes off her clothes.
What????
what did she expect to happen?
Carroll now says it was not rape.
1
Honestly, I think it's time the adults in this country finally take our government back. The 40% of voter-fans who worship Trump are NOT a majority.
16
This is an extremely serious allegation. Shouldn't the NYPD be investigating? There is no statute of limitations for rape in New York.
267
@Dennis
There was a statue of limitations at the time this crime happened, which expired for her before they passed the law we have today.
13
@Horatio
I believe that because of the brutal nature of this case, Dennis is correct. It should be investigated.
10
@Horatio
There is now a lookback window of a year, to file civil suits, no matter when one was assaulted or raped in NYS. Beginning i believe August 14, for one year. Also wanto question why women should be outraged, as a gender....? Why should men also notbe outraged. Not mention sexual assault & rape also happen to men,& boys.
18
The headline asks the wrong question: Rape is a criminal offense that must be proven in a court of law beyond reasonable doubt.
The real questions are: Is Donald Trump an egregious example of every male sexual trait that is disgusting, narcissistic and vulgar? Is his character a catalogue of the Seven Deadly Sins? And, is such a person fit for the office of President ?
We could add that he has none of the usual qualifications of experience in politics or knowledge of foreign and domestic issues that are usually weighed in the balance against minor character defects -- not all presidents have been saints.
The GOP has clearly decided it wants to hold its nose and hope for 2024. One can hope that the American people have enough common sense to refuse to be led by a corrupt, treasonous, and dangerous idiot, who believes himself to be smarter than Einstein and Napoleon, and has the nuclear button at his fingertips.
5
@Al questions the credibility of Carroll's accusation--he finds it hard to believe such an act could have been committed in a place as public as a department store. Many readers have defended the accusation on solid factual grounds. There is so much more to be said here, especially about the burning question of why women who meet men's banter, flirtatiousness, and exercise of power with their own (as it would appear Ms. Carroll did that day) are so often served a dose of crushing violation (and why even women themselves cannot bear to call this rape). But I think that the more relevant response to Mr. Blow's concerns would be to point out that the liberties Mr. Trump is himself proud to have taken with female human beings are sickeningly parallel to those he has taken with this country, its inhabitants, and the growing number of his victims throughout the world. The scale of his dehumanizing behaviors is as devastating as its degree. To Mr. Blow I say: the human response to trauma is so often one of numbness. Ms. Carroll insists she was not raped because she fought back. Can we--Trump's supporters and detractors alike--say the same? I'm not sure what Mr. Blow wants us to do, but we might want to look to those among us who know how to heal trauma--the traumas of rape, of deprivation, of psychological manipulation, of brutality, of social conflict. I think that if Mr. Blow wants us to do something, it must be to start thinking along those lines. I suspect that is our only hope.
7
Mr. Blow, to address your main question - not whether Trump is morally depraved, but how a person like this could become president - you need to go back to how a nation like the US lived with slavery for 250 years, and with the functional equivalent of slavery or second-class citizenship for African Americans for another 150 years and counting. It's not a similar phenomenon. It is the same phenomenon. It is indeed related to the second class citizenship of women since the founding of the republic, and I have a hard time deciding whether racism or the denigration of women is more predominant amongst Trump voters. In any case, it will take an effort not unlike the Civil War to defeat this unprincipled and ignorant minority. This time - let's finish the job and not let them back in the saddle via violence, as happened in the South with the rise of the KKK after 1865.
8
Agreed, and I share Blow's outrage. Trump is a thoroughly despicable, dishonest, hateful human being, who has massive (but by no means unbeatable) popular support. His incompetence and unfitness for the office are certainly no secret.
Investigating his wrongdoing, and chipping away at his support, will take months, if indeed he can't succeed in blunting the effort altogether. Decry his support and his way of operating all you like, but the prospect of action to take him down before the election is remote.
That means our very best chance to rid ourselves of him is the election in Nov 2020. All time and effort should be focused on that event and on our determination to limit him to one term only. We can't afford a second one.
7
Large portions of this op-ed could have been written about Bill Clinton. Including the headline.
3
@Timothy
I’m sure you must know by now that Bill Clinton is no longer the president.
10
And a big difference between consensual sexual acts and rape! Hopefully, you know that.
2
@Timothy
No. Seduction is not rape. Adultery is not rape. Rape is rape. Calling Bill Clinton a rapist is a monstrous lie. Excusing Trump's alleged rapes is just monstrous.
3
If you tell me Trump is a liar, I know that politicians lie, maybe not every day about everything, but, except for the number and outrageousness of Trump's lies, he has this in common with other politicians. If you tell me that Trump is all about using his position to line his own pockets, I say that not much new political ground is broken there, except perhaps the scope and audacity of his thievery. But rape is not lying or stealing, it's much worse and, by no means, business as usual for a politician. The act of forcing sex on an unwilling person is a perversion and a crime. A rapist derives sexual excitement from the psychological or physical suffering of the victim. Rapists differ with respect to whether the infliction of suffering is the exclusive sexual outlet or something engaged in intermittently; sometimes consensual sexual acts are accompanied by rape fantasies. But in all varieties of this perversion, it is the suffering of the victim that is sexually arousing to the rapist.
Unless we are entering a really new political era, rape is not just another politician foible. Stealing sex from an unwilling person is not typical male behavior, nor are fantasies of forcible sexual contact universally arousing for men. But crossing over from fantasies to rape behavior is not only basis for diagnosis, it is also a crime that can't be dismissed or excused. If you have ever committed rape, you should not be president. Inflicting pain and humiliation is not OK.
7
This numbness is precisely why impeachment hearings need to begin.
5
Trump is America's Picture of Dorian Grey. Or is it vice versa ?
1
Where is the outrage from every woman in America and especially the Evangelical Christian women at the statement “she’s not my type”? Don’t they see that the implication is that “I would only assault women that are my type”. Dig deep my fellow Americans and ask yourself, how can I continue to support this individual?
283
@Vito
Exactly, why do Republicans not support someone else for 2020? Why are they sticking with T?
20
@Vito Evangelical Christians hold that the male is right and should never be questioned. Great group.
23
@Vito That may people still support Trump tells us a lot about their character. It is very upsetting to think that about 40% of Americans are Trump groupies. What does this say about our country?
25
Didn't have my glasses on and saw "Is Trump a Racist?" I misread the question, but yes to both.
7
Whether it’s now or later, an Amendment to the Constitution to allow a sitting President to be formally accused and charged with a Federal Crime. They can even limit the types of crimes that can be charged to half a dozen or so if the worst crimes, to include rape, murder, defrauding the IRS of $250,000 or more etc etc but it’s got to happen. Otherwise if we ever have another unscrupulous criminal in office again they will be more emboldened because of how much Trumps gotten by with. This has to happen! It’s absurd that when 25 women accuse anybody of sexual crimes ranging from rape to harassment, that we cannot hold them
Accountable. Can you fathom how many young folks have followed all this and gotten the wrong message... I mean it’s set back things 100 yrs in regards to attitudes. And sure most of us aren’t going to act like that but when young men see a President getting away with these things, making light about it, joking etc clearly it will change the thinking of a great number of young men. How in the world can we allow this to go without a formal investigation by Federal Prosecutors to decide whether charges should be brought? I’m just beyond understanding what’s going on. The old adage that the rich and famous get by with breaking laws has never been more true. Some Justice system when we can’t wven indict a man for crimes just because he was elected (not by popular vote count) President. That’s another thing that must change... but that’s another post entirely.
5
We don’t need a Constitutional Amendment. The only thing preventing an indictment now is a policy position endorsed by Trump’s Justice Department. There is nothing in the Constitution suggesting the President is above the law and therefore unindictable.
2
Electing Trump is a symptom of a greater problem.
The Supreme Court just ruled against litigating gerrymandering. We can't even pass reasonable gun legislation because of the $$-power the NRA exerts on politicians, especially Republicans. And let's not forget the power of false narratives provided by divisive and biased media. Or the drive to underfund education...which coincidentally, has made providing false information so easy because the general population possesses little critical thinking skills.
Most of these things have been going on for at least 30 years now. And are only a few reasons for why we suffer under the insufferable.
The question I have now is...how do we get ourselves out of this situation?
3
At first blush, it's hard to fathom how President Trump got the requisite votes of a minority of the population to commandeer an electoral victory given he is not only indisputably a rapist, but also a person who embraced white-Supremacists ideologies, despises women and reproductive rights, and used religious as a basis to castigate and outcast Muslims.
However, Republicans made it so, via gerrymandering, dismantling the Voting Rights Act, and despicable maneuvers to prevent Democratic presidents and lawmakers from appointing moderate Supreme Court and federal judges--ones who could check bigoted electioneering practices.
Instead they work hard to uphold ideologues just short of fascism who otherwise sought to put the boot on the neck of those who might otherwise have the power to challenge policies based largely on excluding people based on their race, gender, sexual orientation and religion.
Indeed, for nearly a decade Republicans have worked the machinery of elections and judicial appointments to favor an electorate guided by race, gender and religious-based hate.
The logic here is bold, intentional, ruthless: Make it so the electorate whose voting power is emboldened are those who would elect a man like Trump and a judicial system that would not check his worst impulses.
The media is largely complicit. Rarely does it call out the bigotry of the targeted electorate comprising Trump's core or that of the elected officials and judges that give them comfort.
4
I wish just once someone would stand up to Trump and say, "Rape isn't about 'your type' or lust or sexual attraction. It's about domination, violence, and in this case, misogyny."
When members of the media echo Trump's excuse of "I couldn't have done it because I wasn't attracted to her" without correcting the underlying false premise, they are doing a disservice to rape victims everywhere.
4
“Do we simply allow this accusation to pass like all the others, using the limping excuse that whether or not the man who sits in the Oval Office is a sexual predator or not, he was sufficiently litigated in the 2016 election?”
Litigated indeed....This one sentence captures for me how flawed the Democratic candidate in 2016 was in the eyes of too many Americans in key battleground states. They knew who Donald Trump was because he told them over and over again and they elected him despite his lies, sexual predation and serial philandering. May the Democrats chose wisely for 2020.
1
I am still processing the fact that at least a third of Americans identify with a heartless, rapacious bully, Donald Trump. Have any of his supporters changed their minds? Their hearts? As much as I would like to see Trump gone right away, I am pragmatic. It is not going to happen. We need to get out the anti-Trump vote in 2020. It is our only hope.
5
Ms. Carroll has provided a quiet kind of testimony about her experience with, among others, Donald Trump. It is of a piece with what quite a few other women have described. Her testimony is internally consistent, credible, backed by her "outcry" friends and comports with what other women have described of their encounters with Trump. But, I think she *cannot* be looking for outrage. Outrage that she herself never expressed, except possibly in private with a friend or a therapist. It is ~23 years later and we are all left with this stain of a regime in our country. Best thing to do is make sure, do everything possible, to see it ended January 2021. Perhaps then, the scales can be balanced in other ways too.
4
The crucial concept here, one driven into abeyance by milquetoasts and would-be moral sophisticates, is “evil.” What we are seeing in American society is a dark, hideous blossoming of evil—not bad, not irresponsibility, not even ignorance, but evil, manifesting itself in three primary guises: brutal cruelty (Trump and his administration); lawlessness (ditto); and apathy (every demi-human watching these horrors and feeling nothing—indeed, rationalizing it in an effort to justify it).
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for using what I, a secular the only applicable conceptual framework. We are in a condition of Manichean opposition between darkness and light. That is the real polarity here.
5
Yes!
2
I never understood why Al Franken had to resign, and people jumped on those inappropriate touching claims against Joe Biden to make him out as an unsuitable presidential candidate. And Trump continues to fly under the radar with no accountability. Where's Karma when you need it?
15
Yes.
5
Trump's always "gotten away with it". People around him must have been enablers. He is still surrounded with enablers - family, staff, GOP politicians, and most importantly, the citizens of this nation who refuse to believe they voted into office not only a crook, con man and liar, but a sexual predator. . Oh, we have always had dishonest politicians and charlatans in elected office. However usually they eventually are outed and subjected to some kind of punishment - either at the ballot box or through the legal system. We now have a situation where our highest elected official is actually admired for his characteristics by a large segment of the population. Ponder that for a while.
12
With respect to the headline, I didn't think that was still in question.
6
Yes. Let's not overthink it.
6
.... Of course he is. He admitted to it on the Access Hollywood tape. C’mon.
9
To answer your question: Yes.
4
Did you ask the same question about Bill Clinton?
4
@Mr. Moderate
Once again, with feeling; Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky entered a mutually consenting relationship. As far as we know, it involved oral sex, at the most.
Impeachment revolved around the President's lying/denying. If anything, it was an error in judgement by both people involved, although the power dynamic was troublesome as it often is in (for example) academia involving teachers and students.
3
@Anne P.
Have you ever heard of Juanita Broderick?
Or that other woman he and Hillary paid $800,000 to go away. I can't remember her name.
3
Agree, Charles. You wrote this so well. Our president is a rapist, among other things firmly placing him into the category of the worse of the worst among humanity.
Ideally, Congress steps up. Come on, Nancy, you are a woman, a mom, and a grandmother. If I as a young father and husband can read this and wince and almost lose composure, surely you must too.
Congress notwithstanding, I'd be loathe to condemn other approaches to this menace.
8
The problem here isn't that Trump isn't a sexual predator . Its that Bill Clinton was as well. So this is an area where Democrats have trouble attacking Trump. Which is unfortunate.
2
@bobw
No. An interaction between two consenting adults may involve regret, but it does not involve an attack in a dressing room.
3
Mr. Blow--thank you for saying what needs to be said!
4
Trump is an unmitigated disgrace and every American who supports him is complicit.
Like you, I am appalled.
4
It's up to the media, which I so respect, to keep this story alive. Why doesn't She have the dress scanned for his DNA? This guy who is in the oval office IS a Sexual Predator and needs to be prosiecuted. Come on all you women who came forward! Make your case now, along with Carroll's latest accusation. There must be some way to make America "get this"! Please, NYTimes keep this story in the news!!!
2
I think "He's not my type" should be a main slogan for the dems to use in 2020. He's not your type either.
17
Unfortunately the only remedy is the ballot box in 2020. The Supreme Court is hopelessly politicised, it is now effectively an arm of the Republican Party. The Senate wouldn’t impeach Trump if he shot someone on national TV, the only hope for the Republic is a massive electoral defeat for Trump in 2020.
2
A quick scan of the comments suggests that “rape” has a wide range of definitions. Some think of it as an act of lust, which means that the rapist must regard his victim as sexually attractive (Trump himself—“she’s not my type”—would fall into that camp). If so, then all those rapes associated with war or that are recognized perils for female refugees, all of those assaults would be expressions of sexual desire. Let’s please take a breath and try to put ourselves in the shoes of the women who are teaching us just what this act is really about.
2
For 2016, Dems did not realize they needed to use every tactic they could get away with against Trump, in my view. They didn't realize such a buffoon could get elected and they did not have a realistic view of their own candidate. Thus, Hillary got pilloried. (Sorry.) I have to think things will be different next year, but the ugliness may just be necessary. It's not hard to get ugly on Trump (T. Rump, Tyrannosaurus Rump, etc.) as his administration's flagrant nepotism, incompetence, ignorance, graft, fraud and general swampiness are so obvious. This will also be the end of political influence for the Evangelicals, who have told their collective souls. Then they may be able to thrive on a more honest basis.
3
Like much of what this “thing” is accused of, I keep thinking that if Obama and his tan suit were accused of sexual impropriety by 23 women, Michelle would have left him long ago and he would be hanging on to the presidency by his finger nails. Trump only seems to grow stronger.
3
Well, this begs for the obvious rejoinder about Bill Clinton, right?
The fact is, they're two birds of a feather, and because they are, this topic is not going to pay off. It just will not.
3
If Trump fans say, “Well, he’s a dawg but I like his policies so I forgive him,” I could see this as a rational, if somewhat contemptible, viewpoint. A lot of loyal Democrats took this view of Clinton, unfortunately. But it’s totally bizarre that so many Trump supporters simply deny that these sexual assaults actually happened, after so many reports from mainstream, respectable women. This goes beyond naive or loyal.
5
This president acts as if he is above the law, or is the law. He lies and he cheats and he bullies. He is hateful and rude and racist.
The problem you have is not with trump, it is with our nation and with consequential democracy, where enough people turn out to vote and get to decide. However, the misinformation bubble we see from the right wing is historically troubling. I would say it is not the nation that has changed, it is our perspective and our ability to have so many more people publish freely with the internet. We believe mass opinion is moored to some kind of rationality and morality, and some kind of historical wisdom. But it is not. So now we have two nations R and D.
2
It is a fair question. But it is not the central question. The central question is why does this president have impunity across the boards from any and all allegations no matter what they may be. Is it a 40% base cult following locked into an authoritarian mindset? A dictator untouchable like status? I can tell you about being around inmates like Trump from my prison chaplain experience, but if you are part of that cult you will dismiss my experience. Again, I think the central question is the untouchable cult status. What constructs it? Otherwise, any allegation just runs like rain drops off of the back of this president. Nothing sticks. Do you see my point Mr. Blow?
3
Carroll said in an interview that she still has the clothes she wore that day on a hangar in her closet, unwashed from that attack by Trump. Is Trump's DNA present on that clothing?
Is it true that New York State has no statute of limitations for the crime of rape? If true, Trump could face criminal legal jeopardy in this case. Those clothes hanging in Carroll's closet could be pivotal evidence in a rape case against Donald Trump.
1
@S Butler Just curious. Did you stop to ask yourself why a woman would keep an unwashed dress she wore during a violent sexual assault in her closet for decades? It seems people have lost the ability to weigh evidence when their feelings are involved.
2
@LD I would guess that somewhere in the back of her mind that she figured she could use it against Trump at some point.
I believe that trauma causes people to do things no one really understands, sometimes.
Whatever the reason, if it's true that she kept those clothes, they could put Trump in prison.
Thank you for this.
4
Yes, of course!
2
Ms. Carroll stated in her interview that when she got home, she took off the clothes she was wearing and hung them in the closet, where they have remained to this day. She never again wore them, nor did she launder them.
It would be a fairly simple procedure to take that garment and pull DNA samples off of it. If one of those samples matches Mr. Trump, then he is very likely a rapist. Even though the statute of limitations would prevent him from being prosecuted, the evidence would be clear that he raped her and a few days ago lied about it. Even his most committed supporters would have to answer the question, how can you vote for a felon?
As to getting a DNA sample from Mr. Trump, that should be the easiest part.
Worth a try!
5
Trump is sleaze itself. We women just know this. I have no doubt that he is a rapist and sadist and that most, if not all, of his accusers are telling the truth. Or at least, he was. I suspect that age and physical deterioration has caught up with him and he is no longer much of a physical threat to women. But it is now too late to come forward and expect much of a reaction (or an increase in book sales). Those who voted for Trump knew exactly what they were getting and they didn't care. Now all of these late revelations, especially those tied to a book sale, only solidify his supporters' belief that Trump is being targeted by 'haters.' I only hope that young women of today look at this older generation of women who did not demand justice in a timely manner when they were assaulted, say "never again."
3
Carroll uses the term”sexual assault” because that is the legal term used in most states for the crime of rape.
4
The New York Times could do something useful here. It could put on its front page, with a large headline, Matthew Hughes' suggestion that the House Oversight Committee bring all the women together, protect them with bodyguards, protect their families, and have them speak to Congress and televise it to the world. There is such power in the "one after the other" that Mr. Hughes recommends. The New York Times could also notify each and every member of Congress that attendance will be taken and non-attendance will be revealed in the Times, again, front page. The New York Times could also remind its readers of what happens when someone is accused of rape by a credible source. They are arrested and taken to jail. The president is no exception. The time for action is here. The time for articles and being upset and saying tsk-tsk is over. Look where it's gotten us so far.
7
The problem, as grave as this situation is-- and it is-
becomes
how unhealthy it is to live in a perpetual state of Outrage.
Not planning to become numb, it is a coping mechanism. Knowing what you cannot change is a mentally healthy outlook.
It becomes 'pick your battle' and hope that the ones you don't pick are covered by other Citizens.
2
Whatever any of us "are," rapists, non-rapists, targets for scurrilous charges, serial assaulters - this method of delaying the accusation for twenty plus years is not helping us at all. Any of us can be ruined by someone crying "rape." If I was raped -- I would feel compelled to say it at the time, or near in time. At some point, it becomes a circus, and I am the one who is committing the crime. Twenty plus years is way too long after to make a claim like this. It is a power move. It is quixotic. It is not fair. It is not just.
1
@tbs In an ideal world, accusations of rape would be met with respect by police, medical staff, families, colleges, employers and media. It should be taken seriously by all administrative functionaries, from the Olympic Committee, the Vatican and other religious organizations.
Bill Cosby continued his assaults while women stepped forward and were accused of lying themselves. Nassar continued his assault on the USA women's gymnastics team, and on and on and on.
All of us hope it will never happen to us, but it is naïve to be sure that even the best actions can succeed.
I love you Charles Blow, but I hate to tell you, this paragraph felt a like mansplaining to me: "Don’t just keep reading. Don’t just think that you’ve heard this before. Don’t just think that this kind of “behavior” is baked into how people feel about Trump. Go back and read that last paragraph. Read it slowly. Place yourself — or your mother, or your wife, sister, daughter, cousin, girlfriend or friend — in that dressing room. Imagine the struggle. Imagine the violation. Imagine the anger."
I was raped when I was eighteen years old; I'm now 44, and every time one of these stories comes up in the news, I have NO CHOICE but to relive it, to place myself in that room, in her shoes, in her skin. I have nightmares. I feel deep sadness and fear. Statistics say one out of every four or five women (depending upon which stats you site) have been the victim of sexual abuse; I believe those stats are low. There are many more of us than you can imagine. And none of us need to be reminded to relive the moment. Donald Trump's administration has been almost a daily reliving of it for me and every other survivor in the world.
I love you for bringing light to a story that was shamefully underplayed.
But please, don't tell women to remember to "place themselves" in the shoes of a rape survivor. Many of us have already lived it.
4
As much as I want to go along with Charles Blow's sentiments, and as much as I believe that Donald Trump is not only capable of sexually assaulting women but has most likely done so in the past, I am having a very hard time accepting, as Mr. Blow does, this specific allegation. How could Donald Trump get into the women's dressing rooms at an exclusive department store like Bergdorf Goodman? Sales staff are always in abundance, hovering about you, in such stores. And even if a nefarious Donald Trump was somehow able to steal himself into the women's dressing rooms, were there no other customers in there as well? Further, how did all of this happen without Ms. Carroll making any sort of commotion, alerting others?
I'm not trying to "blame the victim," rather I just can't quite understand how this sexual assault could have occurred as described, by Donald Trump or any other male. I'm not "numb" to stories about Trump's predatory patterns of behavior, rather, I still can keep a critical perspective when approaching the veracity of stories like this--something we all need to do towards the sexual assault accusers as well as the accused.
78
@Al--Ms. Carroll's account can be read at a link in the article. She claims it started as a friendly encounter. She ran into Trump, whom she’d met once before, in the store. He claimed he was buying lingerie as a gift and asked her to try it on. She went into the dressing room, and he followed her. Contrary to your assertion, men--usually husbands or boyfriends--do enter women's dressing rooms. I have been in dressing rooms when men have been present. Sales staff are not "in abundance," even in exclusive department stores, any many times I have tried on clothing and then had to go searching for someone for assistance. Ms. Carroll's account makes sense to me.
299
@Al Maybe there were or are "personal shopper" dressing rooms for wealthy clients? Wasn't this woman supposed to be modeling lingerie for him to buy? That'd probably be done privately rather than in a regular sort of dressing room scenario like a Macy's or a TJ Maxx.
48
@Al Many years ago, I was a part-time employee at another such exclusive NYC department store - Bonwit Teller. It was remarkably easy to shoplift even exceptionally valuable merchandise in that store, as we learned the day that a customer walked out wearing a Russian lynx coat. The attitude in such stores at the time was, "The customer is always right," and abuses of this policy were frequent and flagrant. An atmosphere of quiet "looking the other way" dominated the approach to customers, so I find it entirely believable that a man could go into the dressing room and not be noticed. This was how shoplifters, including men who occasionally donned women's attire to avoid notice, stuffed valuable merchandise into their purses and walked out of the store.
172
I simply don’t believe this woman’s allegations. After watching her performance on CNN and MSNBC, she appears to me to be making the whole thing up.
2
How is a rape victim suppose to behave? I am not saying that it is impossible that she made it up, and you have the right to see it the way you want to see it, but there is no default way for a traumatized person to behave, especially in instances where they have spent years disassociating from the traumatic event.
3
@William
Time has passed. She has learned to cope, and is no longer consumed by horror and disgust, but felt the need to speak out against a man who has assaulted countless other women as well as herself. This makes her even more believable to many of us.
1
Lisa,
Trump supporters are authoritarian. They are programmed to protect their master. There is nothing Carroll could say they would believe if it threatens their master. They’re simply drones doing what they are hardwired to do.
3
Only on the surface is America in a stupor. Dig deeper. Trump is in office because too many Americans are seething with anger, contempt, fear, jealousy. These negative emotions make them vote for Trump.
These voters don't believe that these politicians will solve their economic problems. They know their fate is sealed.
They just want to stick it to people now. They want revenge. They want other people to be in pain too.
So. Trump's behavior toward women fits right in with this. Doesn't it? He literally sticks it to them.
9
Perhaps one of your best columns ever, Charles. There is much I could say, but I have little to add to your description of the appalling and frightening direction this nation is going. I can’t imagine why I continue to be surprised by people who dismiss this man’s behavior, who disbelieve women, who fail to understand why “she didn’t speak out years ago.” The United States has never been even close to perfect, but at 77, I have never seen anything like this - not even in the 60’s when it seemed like we were embroiled in constant turmoil. Corruption is accepted or even celebrated. Dishonesty has become the norm. There is now a new list of the rising percentage of Americans who believe that outright discrimination based on “religious beliefs” is acceptable: Jews, LGBT people (I am one), Blacks, Latinos, Muslims - on and on - are now in the crosshairs of more Americans than ever. My wife and I are sitting on the balcony of a condo in Hawaii overlooking the Pacific, enjoying our coffee while our grandchildren are still sleeping. We will tour Pearl Harbor today, then perhaps do some snorkeling this afternoon before flying home tomorrow. All seems well and good and fun and lovely. But I cannot shake these feelings of apprehension and worry about the quagmire into which my country seems to be sinking. I fear for my grandkids’ future....
6
Eloquent and lucid writing.
9
There are rules for qualifying as either a despot or rapist. For both the insurgent and defenders the pursuit of truth often devolves into something of lesser consequence, secondary value and ultimately unworthy to factor or consider.
Convenience speaks louder than morals, values transform into expedience, aberrant behavior is ignored, even condoned, to the extent that it reverberates and amplifies key codes.
This formula involving fame and fortune, equally applies to sexual assault. Rape is a non-starter because the victim lacks status or mass appeal, there wasn't a combative physical defense, or the sham victim attracts such action. Perhaps too many "thems" join the chorus, and what qualifies as proof keeps moving on the basis of influence, status and jurisdiction.
For Donald to be properly evaluated by his following as a potential sexual predator, traitor, cheat, serial liar or stone racist is too far a leap from faith. Positions are drawn on inbred now nearing primordial lines. Patriotism and devotion are tailored to one's politics, increasingly less to what binds us as members of a faith, nation or people.
Is Donald Trump or anyone else a rapist? Much of what one thinks of that idea relates to gut qualifiers under varying circumstances, impact of the defense team, and "significance" of the players in whatever case.
Example from another context: Is either the alleged perpetrator and/or victim privileged? This so often rules over any evidence or lack thereof.
@Ben Brice
Is he or isn't he? That's about as innocently curious as musing about why someone might bring a bone saw to an interview.
Since the DOJ has determined that a sitting president is above the law....what can be done?
I was so disappointed by Mueller's acceptance of the ridiculous notion that a president cannot be prosecuted.
7
My relatives fought in the revolutionary war. I am sure the founders and those who fought would be devastated by the current state of affairs. Such noble documents were drawn up back then... what a despairing turn we have taken.
87
Oh, the pearl clutching, sack and ash cloth routine is really good stuff, folks. But let's all take a trip down memory lane to the Bill and Hillary's Most Excellent Adventure when one was raping, and the the other was covering up - with the latter even threatening those who came forward to make accusations.
You know, the candidate you all voted for in 2016.
Civil War? We conservatives have been fighting a two front war for decades.
5
@whatever So if Bill Clinton's actions were true and so upsetting to you, why would Trump's not be equally so?
21
@whatever Bill Clinton was not accused of rape. He had consensual adulterous sex. He misused his power. Guess what - that is not rape.
12
@whatever
Don't hold back, tell us what you really think. Ok, Bill and Hilary don't deserve anything but your contempt. But, that was then this was now. You conservatives don't want the government in your business ( I guess you're only talking about men's). It's ok to tell women what to do about their bodies, how to dress so as not to affect your delecate, conservative feelings. Because according to you it's ok to lie, assault women, anything to keep women in their place.
So, what is a women's place in the conservative world, silent handmaiden?
12
Charles Blow's - long manifest - prejudice is on full display in the very headline. A leading question intended as rhetorical. It would certainly seem that this woman's sudden claim may be manufactured whole cloth in order to promote her book and pander to a class of people who are ready made for any charge against the President. And, sexism, aside, one need only recall the gallery of women with whom Trump was known to engage - mainly his wives - to recognize that the woman making this latest charge would have been of no sexual interest to him. To Bill Clinton perhaps but not to Donald Trump.
6
@JJ Gross
Rape has almost nothing to do with either sexual attraction for sexual expression, it has to do with power.
Kindly withdraw head from sand.
8
Enough already! Quit diagnosing the problem, we know what and who it is. We need ideas for mitigation and reversal. If waiting for 2020 isn’t it, and there’s good reason to think that something has to be done sooner than that, then say what it is. Why do we let congress off the hook so easily? Isn’t this fodder for impeachment along with all of the other high crimes? We should be holding Congress’ feet to the fire in addition to lamenting the lout in the highest office in than land. Get on with it Nancy.
416
Big public protests. Big serious public protests and civil acts beyond wearing pink hats. It worked with civil rights and Vietnam, including protests against the current Democratic leadership who once again is stuck in the past still dreaming of Unicorns and bipartisanship without realizing even if the Senate doesnt pass it, impeachment process will uncover stuff that the few decent moral souls left in the Republican and conservative camp might find repugnant enough to push themselves and their own leadership into action.
27
@Denis...
You let the House off the hook because no-one in the House has the guts to stand up and actually make impeachment happen...
There's a lot of talk...a lot of investigations that never seem to get anywhere.
But there is no one in the House that wants to take on Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, and no one that wants to sacrifice their lifetime sinecure feeding off the public trough and the perks that come with the job...including an unfettered path to the millionaire class...to do that which needs to be done.
13
@The Owl there are more than 60 representatives on record saying they want to start impeachment. This is not letting Congress off the hook. Pelosi won’t launch impeachment during the summer when no one is paying attention. Keep an eye on September and watch the hearings in July.
27
Miss Carol's allegations are suspect on many grounds, including timing and self-promotion and her suggestion that rape is sexy. She waited until she has a book in the offing instead of supporting other women who came forward and when it might have made a difference in the election. I have talked to male friends who are liberal, and I'm not the only one who think so. Allegations are just allegations unless there's some confirmatory evidence or at least some particular reason to believe the accuser. This is an unpopular view, I understand. But even men -even Donald Trump - are entitled to some form of due process.
15
@ron l
There is confirmation: she told two friends at the time. She even has the dress which possibly could be analyzed.
Ever more powerful, she is not the only woman who has come forth. There are possibly 22 now, and every single one of them told friends at the time.
Trump has a fortune. He has a habit of siccing his attorneys on anyone who complains. He forces people to sign nondisclosure agreements after settlements. Look at his hush money.
Every single time this happens, men come out and say "I don't believe her." Then they list the reasons. That would be fine if it were one incident and Trump had a reputation for integrity.
But Trump is on tape with Howard Stern. He is on tape on Hollywood. He made similar comments on his Apprentice show (according to witnesses).
Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a voter. He could rape a woman in the open with no consequences.
115
@ron l, oh, please. Do not twist the woman’s words to suit your agenda. She did not “suggest that rape is sexy.” She said that some people consider rape to be sexy. And she was absolutely correct in that. Rape is frequently shown, in films and on television, in a way that is intended to be titillating. People do have rape fantasies.
9
@SMB I am not a Trump supporter and didn't vote for him. But I am convinced that someone could accuse Trump of committing human sacrifice of undocumented immigrants in his basement and those who want him out of office would say, "We can't dismiss it. We know he hates immigrants!"
Once again we called upon to light the torches and surround the castle. "What Do We Need Men For? I don't know write books about them? The photo of her and Trump and Ivana ran by ABC news showed she was really happy to see him and Ivana wasn't happy to see her. But that's my imagination.
Not that I'm holier than thou but should I care what these obviously amoral people do with each other? I don't care what happened between these two. The statute of limitations are up so it was between them. That's all there is to it.
3
@JoeG. It is impossible to know what happened between two people decades ago. On face value, the experience described by the author is horrific. Given what we have been lead to understand about Trump, the action does not seem out of character. I agree with Mr Blow that we as a society seem to be immune to shocking behavior, giving scant attention to behaviour that ought to make us recoil and question judgement.
However, the context of this particular accusation (in a book titled ‘What Do We Need Men For”) and the suggestive description make me wonder about Carroll’s motive. Has no one else picked up on the implication she could not tell whether Trump had fully or only partly penetrated? Is that akin to Marco Rubio calling attention to Trump’s “small hands”? Is it relevant to the underlying accusation? Or is it included in the description just to titillate?
6
@JoeG
So, you can distill the circumstances surrounding this event from a single photo? Extraordinary! Put this man in charge of criminal justice - imagine the billions you would save.
BTW. Care does not lapse with the statute of limitations.
5
@JoeG There is no statute of limitations for rape in the state of New York.
5
The presumption of innocence is an important part of our justice system. I don't know if Ms. Carroll is telling the truth, and neither does Mr. Blow. Would he like the next Democratic president held to the standard he seems to suggest in this article?
"Go back and read that last paragraph. Read it slowly. Place yourself — or your mother, or your wife, sister, daughter, cousin, girlfriend or friend — in that dressing room. Imagine the struggle. Imagine the violation. Imagine the anger."
Our criminal justice system, thankfully, revolves around evidence, not emotion.
14
@Jim C. Well Jim, we have eyewitness evidence from Carroll, and similar bad act/pattern evidence from many other women. No DNA is necessary, and there's probably a limitations problem. But, the statute is open in 2021 for his obstruction of justice crimes.and other evidence may be found on his venal operation of the government since Inauguration, emoluments too. So he'll have the presumption then, if we still have a justice system with his cockholster AG Barr.
41
@Jim C. I'm going to answer your question on behalf of Mr Blow, because I'm sure he would agree.Yes, future Democratic Presidents should be held to the standard that he set forth in this article;especially men ( it's always men)that have multiple allegations levelled at them and one that has bragged about sex assault on tape. So there.
6
What a self-satisfied reply that does nothing to address the abysmal failure of the justice system to deal with more than a single-digit percentage of the actual sexual assaults that occur every day.
While we're patting ourselves on the back for our rationality and disinterested detachment, women, children and, yes, men continue to be raped and then to be ignored by justice.
This system we're so proud of is not fit for purpose by a large margin. Something's gotta give. Heaven help us if that turns out to be vigilantism and direct action.
6
I do not believe the Times was being cautious about the Carroll accusation. I think the editor looked at the story and said something to the effect that the President is accused of assaulting another woman. So what else is new?
This is, as Mr. Blow writes, the degree to which we have diminished ourselves as a nation. Not only is it not news that yet one more woman has accused the president of sexual assault, it becomes like a national joke when he replies in effect, rape her? You've got to be kidding. She's not my type.
In the meantime, Trump continues to break laws in plain sight, and Pelosi prays while putting off doing the job for which she was elected: defending the Constitution.
As a historian I can assure you, history will not look kindly on the era of Trump, the Republicans, or the Democrats either. And those of us who have not done all in our power to put a stop to all of this will not look very good either.
523
@avrds I think you sized up the editor's judgment correctly. This is not news. I wound add that it's more a lurid outlet for anti-Trump feelings of those who won't be voting for him anyway.
2
@avrds
No, history will meticulously chronicle the repugnance of the GOP, as well as a system that is differential to powerful monied interests. The Republicans own Trump now and forever, and all the corruption and malfeasance therein.
27
@avrds
as to the question why the story was not front page:
It is a repeat of many such accusations, and even if he can't be convicted of crimes, he should be impeached for them - and other high crimes. Of course, for those that think Trump is despicable for who he is, it might be another roll of the eyes and distain of the court system that he remains free instead of jailed. For those that couldn't care less, they won't read the story no matter where in the paper it is placed.
However, this story, if I haven't been mis-informed, was detailed first in an excerpt from the book written by the victim. The book was then reviewed in the Times, and the allegation disseminated there too. I can imagine the editor weighing the question of Ms. Carroll's motive behind making the accusation now: profit from book sales?
A purse can be made from a sow’s ear, but, it might not be something you’d want to carry to your wedding. The raw material for quality leadership is a good person. Trump is not the former because of the latter.
1
But I think this story does have impact for generations. It says that a man can rape a woman and be popular among the people to the point he becomes president. That is a message to the young - both men and women.
5
Well said, Mr. Blow. Your heartfelt outrage is concise and, sadly, so justified. Trump employs what I’ve come to call the “machine gun perverse outrage” strategy. He continually assaults the senses with one vile regurgitation after another, much like a skunk overwhelms a foe with a noxious chemical, until all you pray for is to get away and not have to deal with it.
In the face of such a constant barrage of ugliness it is human nature to strive to turn away, for preservation’s sake, if nothing else. That is where our elected representatives should step into the fray. That, after all, is why we give them the gift of the public trust. Their egregious failure to stand up to defend the Constitution, both nationally and in discrete communities, is the real rot we face.
Trump is, in essence, a nonentity. Those who have the tools to rein him in and fail to do so are the truly guilty. That spans both parties, including Nancy Pelosi’s poker-game bet on our future. More so, the blame falls to the failure of an Attorney General, the pernicious Mitch McConnell, and the cruel goblins that pollute the Executive branch.
We citizens should be calling, writing, and storming the offices of every Congress member who publicly excuses the lies and traitorous acts of the guttersnipe in the Oval office. We must demand that they act and vote them out if they fail to do so.
2
The graphic account of the ease of the assault told me that this could not have possibly been the first time he had done this.
8
Hopefully Blow and his supporters understand one thing. It is not that we want Trump it is the fact that as of this writing the dems have nobody that we can vote for. Their proposals are ridiculous and just don't hold water. Delaney made the most sense last night. The rest are in outer space.
3
Trump said he did not rape her because she'was not his type'? Forget that this statement demeans women in general as sexual objects but does Trump rape women when they are 'his type'? Along with his taped admissions that he has physically abused women, this statement is just another confirmation in his own words of this ma's depravity.
4
Bergdorf Goodman is long known for being the expensive go to store for New York's elite. Trump's need to dominate there with an accesible employee is in line with his outlier need to be socially acceptable.
1
If it were up to me, Trump would spend the rest of his miserable life in a prison cell. And my heart aches for Ms. Carroll. I don't doubt for a second the truth of what she describes. Should America be outraged? Can it look away? Tolerate yet another obscene and despicable act? Sadly, I think the answer is "yes" to all three questions. Ms. Carroll decided back then to walk away from it, to restrict her outcry to her close friends, to internalize her pain & humiliation, to go on with her life. I don't know what psychic and emotional price she's paid for her choice. Legally the door closed long ago. I'm just not sure the intense moral outrage survives 20+ years intact.
8
Think back to the moment when Trump, at a meeting with world leaders, made his way to the front of the pack by physically pushing aside at least one other leader, all the while holding his head (and nose) skyward. Think about that! It was live and he certainly knew he was being watched. He wanted it to be seen. Wait, this emotionally stunted man ‘needed’ it to be seen. Now, consider all the accusations of sexual misconduct. If this man would act in such a narcissistic manner in public, don’t for a minute believe that he would not do much, much worse in private, behind closed doors.
16
Answer: Without a reasonable doubt!
5
Trump's depraved indifference & disrespect towards people whether it is E. Jean Carroll or the children trapped in holding pens has been evident for some time. Like a spoiled child he takes what he wants when he wants it and he could care less about the consequences. What is also disturbing is that his faithful flock apparently could care less. Where is the decency and respect that we should show to others? Has our country sunk so low & forsaken any standards that govern behavior towards people? It is more likely that Trump living in his own reality has dragged us into a sewer of his own making. In 2020 it is time to drain not only the swamp but the sewer as well.
7
Republicans don't care about morals or ethics. They care about getting what they want above everything else.
Wealthy Republicans are solely driven by greed and only care about themselves to the exclusion of the common folk. Poor Republicans care about keeping "others", people of color, from moving into the mainstream. How dare anyone try and make things better for the poor and lower middle classes! That would mean white people might be on the bottom of the economic heap and any good Republican soldier knows that's a horrible idea. So we are left where we stand today. Let's see if a Democrat wins the presidency what happens. Will things finally turn into a fairer society for everyone?
5
Americans are not in a stupor. Americans are hopeless. Helpless. Again and again it is proven, nothing can be done because nothing ever happens to this man. Nothing. No matter what.
4
Mr. Blow's timely words slammed into me more than any other article or talk-show. Worse than Trump's shamelessness, worse than Republicans' thousand points of light reduced to a broken street lamp, is the certainty that the president's defenders will call up all the old excuses: "No proof." "Trump haters." "Political hit job." That's what allows Trump to defy moral gravity, and exhausts so many of us.
4
I have said this for years. The biggest problem in the world is lack of self respect. You demonstrate your self respect by treating others the way you want to be treated. America confirmed its lack of self respect when we elected a man who enjoys treating others badly for his own amusement and personal gain. And now we have collectively acquiesced to his tyranny for the sake of complacency and a false sense of safety.
It is far too easy for people to point the finger at others than to take a hard look at themselves and realize that real change starts from within. Until the level of self consciousness is raised in this country and around the globe, human life will remain cheap and our dignity will fade into a quaint memory.
7
The answer to this unfit President is to go to the polls in 2020 and vote him and his pathetic family out of the White House.
Trump has never ever, ever been a decent human being, and he is just getting worse. We know the GOP has no compass for decency anymore, as they all look the other way: I guess it is okay to sell your soul and the Constitution for a some Federal Judges and some tax breaks. I thought we were better than that.
The only way to stop this nonsense to vote. I for one am tired of reading all these op-ed columns that have zero impact on what is happening.
11
When, oh when will the rapist-in-chief get in trouble for anything he has done? His impunity traumatizes the good people of this country. I swear watching him blithely sail along creates mass anxiety. Everyone I know is generally thriving but nevertheless has a little area of their psyche where trump-inflicted pain resides.
11
Jean deserve to be heard and authorities should investigate. The fact that she confides in two friends right after it happened adds legitimacy to her account. This has haunted her for far too long. This needs to haunt him the rest of his living days and beyond should there be one. POTUS is the most despicable example of a human being and he is our leader. Man we need help.
5
Not my type? That means he attacks women who are his type? He never said I have never raped anyone, just not this or that one. We know he has issues with the truth whatever he says.
11
Perhaps it's finally time to apply these formidable journalistic energies to a much larger question: how is it that millions of normal Americans suspend not only their moral judgment but everything about their minds to support this guy?
Not talking about the crazies, whom we shall always have with us, or the ideologues for oil or oppressive religions. Nor low-information voters -- you know, the 'deplorables' and boy they sure owned up to that one.
Talking about suburban and exurban employed professionals and business people who go to church as a matter of fitting in and to yoga class and onto the bike trails. These people are clean and kinda fit. They do not watch Honey Boo-Boo whoever that is. They shave regularly.
Mr. Charles, time to go among them and learn about this. They'll talk to you. In fact they are proud of being non-racists and even non-homophobes, and will be in their best behavior.
7
For Trump, the only moral question one can ever ask is, did he get away with it? And at this late date, he certainly has.
3
Mr. Blow, I'm afraid you get this all wrong, it's not about him, and his depravity or lack of morals. It's about ~40% of our population being behind him no matter what the outcome is. He will go away, but that ~40% will not. They may go dormant for a few years, but they will reemerge once another Trump-like candidate shows up.
This is happening because of the income inequality the entire planet is facing, compounded with the climate changes we're experiencing. The perfect storm sort of scenario which will ultimately lead to our demise as a species within the next 100 years.
176
Right on about the problem. Ideological about the cause.
3
@Al
I agree in part. Hatred is the main reason. These folks vote against their own economic interests every time. They just need an enemy. I hear it about people like me. Liberals. Federal Employees. Worse about minorities. Read the comments on Fox news.
He reminds me of Fidel Castro, 1959-1960: "Russians? What Russians?"
The Cuban constitution of 1940 eliminated the death penalty, but soon after Batista fled, military tribunals found defendats guilty of crimes against humanity. The rabble recited "To the wall" similar to "lock her up." Social psychology and peer pressure fueled the Nazis and other Fascists. Although the US protested mass executions took place.
Similarly, Cuban Miami friends would say that if we could fight in Vietnam, we could nuke Cuba. When I would point out that to do so would be to kill their relatives and friends still on the island. It did not matter, they would say, "they decided to stick with Castro."
2
@Al Income inequality and climate change? No, rampant misogyny among Trump supporters. They share his depravity and lack of morals, even if it's only to go as far as a wink and a nod.
9
Most probably I am not the first one who has noted this, but may be the first one to bring it up. Some comments, which I guess are coming from organized republican groups, have adopted a new strategy that show up in the listed comments here and elsewhere. This strategy is intended to give a comment an air of "rationality" or "fairness" and get those opposing republican backed policies to sympathize with, if not support, them.
The strategy is simply this: if you are supporting Trump, squeeze into the first sentence something like: "I am not a fan of Trump, but ..." Or, in your comment supporting starting a war with Iran, make sure the first line reads: "I don't like wars, but ..." or "I do not support another war in Middle East, but ..." If you are supporting Bibi Netanyahu's policies in the West Bank, your first statement should contain "I do not support the current extreme right-wing Israeli government, but ..."
Interestingly, many of these comments end up as "NYT Picks". If in doubt, just have a look!
11
We need Mr. Blow's outrage. He should direct it to the Democratic House, and in particular, Nancy Pelosi. That she refuses to act is by far the worst crime committed against the American People.
6
Yes. Does it matter? Sadly, no.
2
I agree wholeheartedly, Charles. Over the past week, I've been focused on the abuse of human rights in the border camps, trying to gin up awareness and get people (including my reps in Congress) to DO SOMETHING. But even people who are outraged by Trump's policies and behavior seem to think that all we can really do is wait till the 2020 election. Their faith in our system of government, and willingness to play by the rules, is either admirable or deeply deeply naive after 2016. Jeez, say what you will about Europeans but those French yellow vests have been out in the streets for months protesting _high gas prices_! Here, we have a rapist setting up concentration camps (not yet extermination camps but aspirational) and people are like, "wait till Nov 2020 and vote him out." What will it take for people to rise up and fight back??
13
We are so close to genocide, slavery and racism, is there really any doubt that what this guy does truly does not represent a very significant set of attitudes in our society.
4
Charles,
Every statement you’ve made is true.
Here’s the thing: Trump is protected by white men, who have all the power. They have always had all the power. Under Trump they openly flaunt that power and cynically and with satisfaction thwart every effort by the rest of us to stand up to Trump or their caucus. They have the power, Charles, and this country will be repeatedly raped as long as they have the power.
7
The Republican Party and President Trump are very much invested in the subjugation of women and children. Being able to verbal, psychologically, physically, sexually abuse them and rape than at whim reminds all of them of their dominant status in this society. It assures them of their power.
The expression of dominance is a biological urge. It’s an instinct and unreasonable. It is usually expressed during bouts of insecurity and feelings of powerlessness.
It’s a choice: are you dominated and subject to your biological urges or do you have the discipline and capacity to transcend them?
Interestingly, women have been put in situations created by the patriarchy to transcend their biology,; while men, because their biological urges have been catered to, have been blinded by their subservience to their biological urges.
10
I'm open to suggestions as to what you'd like me to do, other than believe that she speaks truth. If people listened to me, the dolt wouldn't be president, and you see how well that worked out.
10
Thank you, Charles Blow. Your outrage is heard. My outrage is overwhelming by the fact that trump is even sitting in the Oval Office. He so disgraces the Presidency - he is a mean, self-centered, vicious human being. And, we'll be lucky to make it to 2020 without him blowing up the world.
I agree. Democrats need to start impeachment and start it now. Or they, too, are complicit in trump's ongoing outrageous behavior. A friend was raped like this in high school. Nothing was ever done, just like with E. Jean Carroll - by an entitled young man that never faced the consequences. This has to stop. trump must be stopped.
12
I have to be provocative here and ask, why these women in particular?
In 2017, according to the FBI, there were 135,755 rapes in the USA, the fourth year in a row that number has increased. 2018 figures I"m sure will be higher again. And that's not the real total because we know for certain not all women or girls report that they've been raped.
For all the reasons Trump so proudly displays at each accusation.
So why these women?
Because of the status of the man they've accused.
The thousands of women raped whose accused rapists are not the president of the United States deserve to be heard as well. They deserve justice as well.
Yet very, very few receive justice and even fewer are heard.
But this is America where white male wealth and status is the yardstick for everything.
5
Thank you for this. As a victim of child sexual assault (incest) and as a therapist who now treats a lot of trauma, I am disgusted by how, over and over, the treatment of women especially gets shoved aside, normalized, etc. I put the anti-choice/Handmaid's Tale creeps in the same category. Just gross and a big part of the core of what is wrong with our sick patriarchy.
14
We have a rapist for President and Republicans will do anything he says. When Trump was expressing concern for all the rapists immigrating to the country, he was being auto-biographical. We have a criminal for President and none of the “adults” will do anything about it. It makes our system of “justice” look like a joke. It certainly supports the belief of most that our system of justice only holds accountable those without money or power.
10
"Underplayed" is an "Understatement" The piece was initially published in the Books section.
2
This column reminds me of two movies: The Oxbow Incident and the more recent Hang'em High. In each case a blood-hungry posse hangs an innocent man without any real proof. The posses, blind to due process, wanted blood revenge and had to hang somebody. In each instance when the truth came to light the posses realize they hung an innocent man. Mr. Blow like his fellow Trump haters who read the Times just believe any accusations against Trump because of their hatred. When we no longer believe in the rule of law then we will really be in trouble as a society.
3
Due process and protections are fundamental to law, for victim and accused alike.
It is good to see you defend the accused, curious about the silence for the victim.
5
@NonPoll "Victim" would mean there was proof of a crime.
Well put. Sadly, truly, well put. America has no claim to morals or values anymore. You all collectively look away, or worse, look on with dead, unfeeling eyes.
When is enough of this monster enough?
7
Americans' acceptance and support of Trump is part of a sweeping response to liberalism, and particularly those parts of liberalism that are philosophical supports for the rights of women, that is sweeping the world. Led by conservative and Neo-Nazi demagogues and "journalists" like those at Fox News, those creating and riding this wave desperately fear women as a group, and strong women in particular.
5
We, as a people and as a country, have reached a crossroads.
In one direction, a sign says this way to truth, honesty, fairness and finding love for your fellow travelers on this earth.
In the other direction, a sign says this way to lies, dishonesty, cheating and hatred.
We have a major decision to make.
Some have already decided which way they want to go.
Time is short. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
10
Thank you for speaking such truth. I walk around each day wondering what we have come to in this country. You spell out the danger very eloquently.
10
The ability to accept the rot that pervades our country and politics is also a story of rage against a system that does not take care of its people. The rage is happening. It just so happens that there is a terrible human being that latched on to the peoples angers and fears. We are in the temper tantrum phase. Some people are so desperate that they are willing to blow everything up and look the other way just to have someone actually speak to them. It doesn’t matter if things don't get better. A change of administration will not change this. Democrats are not going to change this. Going back to business as usual will not help enough people.
9
Rape is a felony akin to murder. It's a physical violation. Carried out against another's will, it renders them powerless and denies their agency, their very humanity. All too often, victims suffer years of cascading emotional destruction and mental health issues. My question is this: why does it take armies of women coming forward to seek justice against even the most flagrant criminals? Misogyny is so deeply woven into the fabric of this society, most people either can't see it, refuse to see it, deny it, or rationalize it away.
15
Thank you, Charles Blow, for being one of few who are really speaking in a forthright manner about what is happening in our country.
9
The headline writers of the New York Post are green with envy. However, the rest of the opinion world has (for the most part) figured out that all the negative headlines and
Yes. He is unfit, by any standard.
Impeachment inquiries must begin, ASAP.
12
I'm surprised Jean Carroll hasn't taken the unlaundered garment in question to a lab for DNA analysis.
Of course, should it come back positive for Donald Trump, Carroll knows the President would change his story and claim it was a consensual encounter.
3
There seems to be some sort of blinding fascination with Trump that overrides his supporters sense of humanity, morals and ethics.
Early in his campaign (in Iowa January 2016) he said, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters, OK? It's like incredible."
Now it appears he could have just as well said, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and __[fill-in any deficiency in humanity, morals or ethics]__somebody and I wouldn't lose voters,". As in:
"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and sexually assault somebody and I wouldn't lose voters,"
9
"her account landed like one more body on the pile of a mass grave." Bravo Charles.
So why are we wondering who will run against him in 2020 instead of wondering when he's going to be arrested?
8
Mr. Blow, this IS America. Perhaps it was different before, or will be different again, but one thing is sure: Your "Commander in Chief" represents a People who put him as President. Whether this People will change, as the Germans did after 1945, and acknowledge its responsibility for racism, male chauvinism and white supremacy and xenophobia preached from the White House is another matter. Let´s hope every USA citizen will understand the need to show the world that America is ready for a change that starts in acknowledging the horror of what America represents and stands for today.
8
The left might have more credibility here had they not bent over backwards to defend Bill Clinton and trash his accusers not so long ago.
We still (except if the accused is a Republican) have the presumption of innocence here. This is a 25 year old accusation that just happens to come to light while the author's book is being released.
Sorry but the cynic in me finds this highly suspect.
Where's the outrage or followup from the NYTime's on Justin Fairfax ? It's practically non-existent while any mention of Trump gets highlighted here.
Charles, while you have fans here, your personal credibility suffers when you only see things at a partisan political level.
5
Until the millennial generation shows any signs of outrage and begins to act (i.e. vote, protest....anything) this blight will persist. Young Americans, the largest in American history, has the power to save America, but they seem to be either too numb, too self absorbed, too detached, too hypnotized by little glowing screens to do anything. A Democratic candidate who can mobilize the youth of America can sweep our feckless Republican friends back into the swamp from whence they came.
3
The feeling is, "Oh yeah, that's what Trump does." It's accepted just as any other outrageous trait of his. It's part of the package. We are numb to it. And, because nothing is done about it, it's easy to feel hopeless. Why be outraged? Millions and millions of Americans are fine with it. They think assaulting women is okay. #MeToo has shown us that it's been happening forever, in all walks of life, with almost no repercussions for the perpetrators. Men write angry, defensive op-ed pieces arguing that they've never assaulted anyone and we all start to feel guilty that we've misjudged them. Then Brent Kavanaugh comes along and becomes the poster boy for the aggrieved men and we realize how hopeless it all is. So, yeah, we're pretty much numb. And, we know Trump will never be made to answer for any of these claims against him. Sorry, Ms. Carroll. You just came along too late in the story for anyone to care.
3
Almost two dozen women allege Trump raped or sexually assaulted them over the last three decades. They are strangers to each other. Trump describes the modus operandi in the infamous Hollywood Access tapes.Trump is guilty of rape.But not in the eyes of forty per cent of the American public. And political support is based upon factors that can discount personal misbehavior including rape or sexual assault.
3
@Milton Lewis writes, "Trump is guilty of rape. But not in the eyes of forty per cent of the American public." I think the situation is even worse. The forty percent also know that he is a rapist and--very obviously--an abuser of women. His bullying, aggressive behavior is exactly what elicits their support.
They need and identify with a "leader" who beats up on women, minorities, migrant refugees including children, allies of the USA, anyone in his path who does not swear fealty to him and obey and imitate him. They derive the little gratification of their lives from their vicarious enjoyment of Trump's thuggery. Psychology has a name for that mental and moral derangement.
This is a national neurosis that we are witnessing. A campaign by mental health professionals would be a more effective way to deal with it than any political discussion or debate. In fact, I question whether it is not self-indulgent of the 2020 Dem candidates to discuss national policy while an amoral monster presides over the Oval Office. They're going full throttle ahead, ignoring the live mines attached to the ship of state.
3
What would happen to me if I did the things trump did. Rape charges, lying, refusing to testify on my own behalf, not letting others testify, blocking any and all investigations, turnover of staff, and the list goes on and on. I would be in jail if I did all the things trump has done even if I failed to comply with investigation attempts. How can we a country accept dishonesty, deceit, immoral behavior, obstruction of justice, lack of ethics and other criminal activities go on. If any one else behaved like him we would be in jail. How can he be our president and and remain there. This is not the country I grew up in. You paid for bad behavior!!
4
Bill Clinton's accusers were believed by Republicans. Trump even invited them to sit in the gallery at his debate with Hillary. Hillary was hamstrung in responding for obvious reasons. I recommend that the Democratic nominee invite Trump's accusers to their presidential debate. I believe it would be fair for the Democrat, whomever it is, to bring up the multiple allegations. There's a saying about not wrestling with pig ... However, based on Trump's history of getting away with financial and personal indiscretions by playing dirty, I say get into the gutter and beat him at his own game.
2
Thank you for this insightful and meaningful article. Your relentless use of questions is uncomfortable, as it should be.
In answer to your question:" Do we simply allow this accusation to pass like all the others, using the limping excuse that whether or not the man who sits in the Oval Office is a sexual predator or not, he was sufficiently litigated in the 2016 election?", the answer should be a resounding, NO! NO! NO!
5
Republicans. Trump is the symptom but they are the pathology. Until they decide that their vaunted moral majority and "Christian" claims include actually being moral and having values then only half the country exhibits the slightest care for our national character. It's bullies and angry men versus the majority of us. So far it's clear who has the upper hand.
Why are Democrats so afraid to impeach? Why are they so sleepy or is it numb? Last night the men on stage---DiBlasio, Delaney, Inslee, even Castro and Booker---talked over each other, shouted, and tried to bully their way into the conversation. The intelligent, serious women stood and waited their turn, answered questions when asked. This morning the bullies weren't roundly denounced this morning, most were said largely to have had a "good night."
While some Democrats are tired of the shouting, others carry on the Republican ethos: they never tire of being the bullies and if abuse is the way to win, so be it. Trump treats America the same way he treats women: with contempt, as a cowardly bully and when he can as a sexual predator. Will Americans looking for justice ever be heard?
7
Mr. Blow, I am of the opinion that this column is your strongest yet regarding DT’s egregious conduct as a man and as president. You eloquently and forcefully capture the essence of Trump’s character and thus his moral decadence. I find it difficult to accept that the people of this great nation with, however, all of its social, political, economic and moral “flaws” have somehow become numb to the dastardly and despicable behavior of the most powerful person on earth.
Donald Trump is an evil and morally bankrupt individual. He has no conscience, no soul and no empathy for anyone other than himself and those whose wealth parallels (or mirrors) his wealth. He is racist and misogynistic and has no business (of literally) occupying this coveted seat of power.
House Democrats, who are in a position to de-throne DT—who, no doubt, sees himself as “King of the World”—are reluctant to begin impeachment procedures (presumably) because of the possibility of a “guaranteed win” in DT’s favor in 2020, must not continue to allow this person to go unchecked. If DT’s conduct doesn’t meet the “criteria” for removal from office, what—and who—pray tell, meets the criteria? The process for removal from office must begin, or this “nation of laws” is in fact a lawless nation.
We simply cannot expect Senate Republicans to speak on the conduct and behavior of this president, because they, like him, are simply cowards. Cowards have no voice.
Keep writing, Mr. Blow. The siren is appreciated.
7
I think you hit the nail on the head. The sickness is in America. Trump is just a symptom. A healthy body politic would have rejected this monster at the outset, or thrown him out of office long ago. As a neighbour, I wish I had kinder words to say, but right now, the United States simply disgusts me.
7
Great Rubric Charles, Can there be any question? Can there be any question about the perverse hypocrisy of the so-called "moral conservatives?"
2
Trump told us that he does/did what E. Jean Carroll claims. We all heard it on the Access Hollywood tape. And a couple days later, we were all distracted by the hack on HRC’s email. That’s their MO. Will someone please hold this man legally responsible for something?
5
I applaud this warning: "People have settled in themselves that the only remedy is at the ballot box in 2020, mostly because that is what they are incessantly being told."
Yes, shockingly, we are told that by our elected representatives, led, I am sorry to say, by House Speaker Pelosi. Congress is refusing to apply the remedy that could end our Trump trauma now: impeachment. They kick the bucket down the road to the 2020 voters, who are mostly benumbed by congress' flagrant tolerance of a corrupt president's bigotry and bullying approach to issues both foreign and domestic.
Sure, I'll vote in 2020; I'll pick up the slack for those guardians of our Constitution who refuse to apply our Constitution's remedy of impeachment. But I will have my bags packed, car gassed up, and GPS aimed for Canada, with pity in my heart for those many Americans who cannot escape the miasma of the Trump era.
The Supreme Court has abandoned, this morning, "one person, one vote." Did we need that reminder that one individual can do nothing against systemic corruption? That it takes a concerted movement, impossible at a time when our elected officials refuse to carry out their Constitutionally prescribed duties, to protect security of life (border concentration camps and threats of Mid-East war), rights and liberty (the stalled Violence Against Women Act and assaults on voting rights by the Department of Justice and gerrymandering states).
I am numb--with frustration!
5
She had a great chance to explain what happened during a T.V. interview the other day. She did say it was not rape, then went ahead talking about rape being a fantasy for many people, that was pretty strange.
What does it say about a society that won’t protect its female citizens from attacks by an out of control male? An amoral rudderless attitude has infected the body politic, is what I’ll posit here.
6
You are not alone, Charles. This outbreak of nauseous symptoms is merely epidemic. I say "merely" when the real response should be pandemic, leaving not one single soul unafflicted.
And yes, the Times has been much too cautious in running this story to ground. Trump has cowed not just the Republican Party, but given the Gray Lady a bad case of ague. I am disappointed that the NYT has used the longest tongs in the drawer to handle what should have been a hands around the throat approach.
6
This story should stay front and center and not die on the vine like the other 20+ victims with similar experiences. Ms. Carroll on the The View is a good next step.
#MAGA meet #metoo
1
How you manage to retain and channel your anger, Mr Blow, is an inspiration.
Every one of us whose anger has been numbed needs to read your words and reignite our sense of outrage and use every opportunity to push back against Trump, his administration and the unfeeling legislators.
Only then will we be able to MAPA - Make America Proud Again.
3
The more that people rant against Trump the stronger he gets. People just don't get it. It is like he is a drug they have to take, and all the while it is killing them.
Every time someone writes one of these diatribes Trump gets strong, more people support him, he gets fuel for his ugliness.
Trump is the leader. Every day people all over America respond to him. Good or bad, it doesn't matter. He is setting the pace, the tone, and other people are falling into line.
The Democratic candidate for President who stands the best chance of winning is the one who mentions Trump the least, not the most.
1
A person's gut reaction can tell you a lot about them. His reaction was "she's not my type." So he's saying it's OK to rape/assault/dehumanise one's type. In fact, it sounds as though he thinks they should be flattered. His reaction is about all any human being with the standard supply of morals needs to know. This is very base, primitive behaviour.
The man cannot control himself. Every tweet, every belittling statement that drips from his mouth, every self-adoring assertion, every smirk is part of a pathology. They do not exist in isolation. This behaviour is not normal, period. But even his so-called arch enemy concluded that he is above the law. Wow.
Tens of millions of Americans idolise him, in spite of or because. He is exactly the president they have always longed for. These people should look themselves in the mirror. But I fear they cannot see themselves in a mirror.
10
Unfortunately, I believe they see in him the embodiment of their bigotry, hatred of women, and their utter disdain and contempt for anyone not like them. These people look in the mirror, smile and say "finally, someone who thinks like me."
7
Yes he is. He needs to be charged -- with multiple felonies.
4
Isn't Trump a near-perfect fit for the Beast in Revelations? If so, I don't get why all the evangelicals are all-in for him.
4
No, sir, a sickness has not settled on your country. It was always there. All you did was collectively hide it under the national 'look how wonderful we are' covers and hope nobody noticed.
7
Sadly, @Flossy, you're spot-on.
P.S.: Those ex-convicts who originally settled Australia fared far more honorably than our slaveholders.
2
I am in no stupor. I'm a rape survivor and furious. Have not forgotten the Hollywood Access admission. I follow Summer Zervos' case and fully support it. Depose Trump, sue, call to Congress. Call all of the women to Congress. If Cosby met justice we can do it with Trump.
11
Every thing about Mr. Trump suggests rape: Rape of voter gullibility. Rape of the environmental protections. Rape of the health care system. Rape of Government owned lands. Rape of international relations. Rape of the Federal Income Tax system. Rape of whatever he encounters to benefit himself and himself only.
Why would anyone doubt that he would rape women when so many have come forward and he has bragged about assaulting women?
5
For two and a half years we've screamed this President is above the law. The media, in its quest for profits made Donald Trump and normalized him.. He's certainly not good for America, but great for CBS!
Trump has power only because 40% of the electorate has drunk the Trump-Aid. They will walk through fire for him because he's the messiah - small m. They want to be like him. Sad.
3
The accused said she was laughing after the incident she described. She said earlier this week she wasn’t raped, and rape is a fantasy and sexy. In my opinion, she needs counseling, instead of media exposure to sell her new book.
2
Trump corrupts everything he touches...or even come near to. Trying to take action on every incident is a losing proposition. The answer is to vote him and his enablers in Congress out of office in 2020. This should be the top priority for every decent citizen.
2
thanks for bringing attention to this.
2
Of this and all the other allegations of sexual interference, misconduct and malfeasance there is perhaps a very important question to ask. "ARE THESE NOT THE BODIES LYING BLOODIED ON 5TH AVENUE, that the Predator President said he could shoot without consequence? America where is that moral centre you used to tout as being the centre of the human universe? Is it too another bullet riddled body in the street? And of that numbness Charles Blow speaks, we need to stick pins not in a Trump Doll but in ourselves in order not to become inured to the violence that exist in the body of this Predator President. Standup please and do the right thing lest you too degrade your democracy by the crassness of silence.
4
Of this and all the other allegations of sexual interference, misconduct and malfeasance there is perhaps a very important question to ask. "ARE THESE NOT THE BODIES LYING BLOODIED ON 5TH AVENUE, that the Predator President said he could shoot without consequence? America where is that moral centre you used to tout as being the centre of the human universe? Is it too another bullet riddled body in the street? And of that numbness Charles Blow speaks, we need to stick pins not in a Trump Doll but in ourselves in order not to become inured to the violence that exist in the body of this Predator President. Standup please and do the right thing lest you too degrade your democracy by the crassness of silence.
1
Does anyone else find it suspicious that a man as notoriously litigious as Donald Trump hasn’t sued a single one of the women leveling accusations of sexual misconduct against him? It seems suspiciously out-of-character for him not to threaten libel or slander suits against them. Instead, he offers as “proof” of the “ridiculousness” of these claims that these women are not attractive enough for him to sexually assault. Apparently Creepy Donald doesn’t know that sexual assault isn’t a compliment one bestowed on a woman when he finds her attractive.
5
I believe. When nearly two dozen women confirm in various ways that Trump did to them a variation of what he himself said on the Access Hollywood rape. I want the country to read this. I want the country to rid itself of this addled scoundrel.
But I’m haunted by our Bill Clinton silence. Even though Clinton was a much better president and a much more decent person...we looked the other way all too comfortably.
1
Again, as I said just a few days ago in another unpublished comment to a NY Times article, Mr. Trump -the Fake President and Human Being- is truly destroying a Real World Wonderful Society. What ever happened to this great country?; what ever happened to the admirable US Society that is now allowing these uncivilized things to happen on a daily basis?
The entire world should find a way to get rid of his calamity!
There is not much time left before something horrible might occur with China or Iran as a direct result of the actions against individuals and entire societies by an irresponsible Human Being Fake.
6
Unfortunately, Mr Blow you are right, we are numb, I am numb to these horrors. It's human nature to get to use to everything. I was outraged and angry by the access Hollywood tape, where there was more evidence for all of us to see and hear. When he survived that, I doubted anything could be of note from then on. Now I just feel sorry for the women and praised their courage for speaking up, but I am not outraged anymore.
Trump won the get-used-to-horror battle. I am ready for the other battle, on November 2020.
3
People think it took too long with Bill Cosby and R. Kelly? How many accusations is enough to establish probable cause for a proper investigation? Can a president pardon himself if the charge is rape? When is a 'locker room talk' on-camera confession evidence? When did multiple accusations of sexual assault and attempted or actual rape become OK?
Stop his predator.
4
The answer to the question:
"Is Trump a Rapist?" is "Yes!"
He is a serial rapist and assaulter of many women, including Katy Tur (of NBC news--read her book about the campaign), and the teanage girls in his Miss Teanage World pagent when he visited their dressing room when he knew they would be in a state of undress--and bragged about it.
Trump is also a deadbeat of the worst kind: One who refuses to pay his bills and then pays lawyers to ensure those he steals from can't defend themselves.
As President, he has used the office to propagate lies, to enrich himself, to enlist the power of the US government to help him attack his enemies, and to violate many of the laws against abuse of power.
All this, plus sanctioning abuse of children and asylum seekers, forcing federal employees to commit crimes against humanity against babies and young children or be discharged.
And telling well over 10,000 well documented lies, not counting his lying assaults on Obama and the Central Park 5.
He also is objectively incompetent at performing the duties of being a president, including failing to identify candidates for many of the essential positions in our government to request Senatorial confirmation.
Attempts to bring Trump to justice have been met with Meuller's documented acts of obstruction of justice, and with an even more blatant obstruction of the Congress investigations.
Perhaps it is time to act.
3
Donald Trump's first wife accused him of rape. She sadly recanted, likely to improve her divorce settlement. In his Access Hollywood tape, he told us that he assaults women and gets away with it, because he's a celebrity. There are now 16 women, who allege that he assaulted them in some fashion. We've all watched him call woman "dogs, fat, ugly, not his type". Despite this reality, people still support him, GOP legislators talk about a third term and cabinet members frequently subject themselves to a ridiculous, praise circle.
Mr, Blow is right, Trump's influence is catastrophic and a harbinger, that if not stopped, Donald Trump will lead us into more depravity. This gives new meaning to leadership. It will be someplace, we American do not want to go.
3
Americans say to Trump on November 3 2020
"NOT OUR TYPE"
I imagine Trump will need to be forcibly removed from office on 1-20-2021which is fine. His criminal court cases have already piled up so he should be in custody and held without bail.
3
R. Kelly (pending outcome), Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, Jeff Fager, Bill Cosby, Les Moonves, Paul Marciano, Chris Matthews, at least 3 NFL players, Mario Batali, Trent Franks, James Levine, Matt Lauer, David Sweeney, Rep John Conyers, Charlie Rose, Sen. Al Franken, Louis C.K., Terry Richardson... and SO many more have either been fired or resigned, settled, gone to jail, or in some way "paid" recompense after their allegations became public. Yet this man can shrug it off and that is somehow "ok" with everyone? trump has perniciously relocated our measuring stick against which our Nation has traditionally upheld standards of deviance.
I find it not only infuriating but detrimental to every victim of sexual assault who will reconsider reporting after this setback (thank you also Justice kavanaugh and Roy Moore) in the way victims are treated. Your Opinion piece was spot on @CharlesMBlow and needed to be said! Thank you!!
1
"A Chorus" ? no, sir, A Score, and then some. And they cheer him on.
Yes, he is...among many other heinous attributes.
1
Well said, unfortunately.
Thank you.
2
It's a pointless question. The answer is obvious.
2
Unfortunately, none of this 'Breaking News,' as the latest victim to come forward with the same message will only be the victim du jour of the same serial criminal until the next one comes along.
I'm still trying to process my disgust with the photograph of two of his other recent victims, a dead father and his daughter lying face down in a river.
3
It's not America. It's the Trump and GOP base. It's safe to say that were this accusation leveled against Bill Clinton or Obama or something similar against Hillary Clinton, the same people insisting this woman is lying would have declared those people rapists, predators, and would be exploding with moral outrage. For example, despite Jones's case being thrown out by the judge for lacking merit, and Brodderick having signed an affidavit saying "it" never happened, the same people flatly defending (more like protecting) Donald Trump to this day refer to Clinton as a rapist and predator. In other words, the right wing has politicized and weaponized even rape: if a Republican is accused, the line will be the woman is lying; if a Democrat is accused, don't only rage against the accused but also his wife. What stands out to me is that the "Party of values, moral and Christian, of character, and of law & order", have absolutely no standards whatsoever for their own party's leaders. A law breaking, alleged rapist and serial sexual assaulter, a con man, a man who attacks US combat veterans and parents who've lost children to war for this country, who mocks disabled people, calls women dogs, ugly, and 'bleeding from...", who lies an average of 23 times a day...is now the head of the party of "character counts!" and moral values. That says everything anyone need know about the GOP and its base.
2
I keep wondering if there are store surveillance tapes from the time. I don't know if the right to privacy prevailed and cameras were not used in the dressing rooms, but placing the perpetrator and victim in the store at the same time would go a long way to support the allegations.
There is a difference here between Kavanaugh's alleged assault, being a drunk teen and out of control and a middle aged man (50 yo) attacking a woman in a dressing room. Maybe it is preposterous, but he did kind of admit it in the Access Hollywood tape. This would not be a boisterous, teen with inhibitions blunted by alcohol committing a foolish act, which he likely regretted for the rest of his life whenever he recalled it. No this is an act of hubris. He had the power to attack a person on 5th avenue in broad daylight and get away with it, remind you of anything?
For Kavanaugh the incident probably made him a better man when he matured. For Trump it only reinforced his hubris "only I can solve the problems". In Greek Tragedy Hubris must lead to a reversal of fortune, Peripateia, and then a recognition that the fall was because of Hubris, Anagnorisis. Read Agamemnon, the king who killed his daughter to fight Troy and returned 10 years later with a mistress, Cassandra, what did his wife Clytemnestra do? Read the play. One can only hope that the Fates or God can bring the Universe back into balance.
4
@William D Trainor Why you feel the need exonerate Kavanaugh in condemning Trump is beyond me. Kavanaugh's performance at his confirmation hearings and his activity on the SCOTUS since he was confirmed shows he definitely did not become a better man.
2
@William D Trainor
I don't think Kavanaugh became a better man after the assault. His (rehearsed) behavior at the hearings -- yelling, turning red, talking about beer to Sen. Klobuchar, etc. -- made me think he was bad then and has gotten worse with the passing years. Now he's unassailable.
2
@Lizmill
Funny that you would pick out a political argument out of a comment that would distinguish between a teen drunk and a man who would rape "not his type" just because he could and get away with it. Much worse in the greater scheme of things. And besides it almost Homeric.
In my opinion, the staff of the Departement Store should be questioned. How could that man enter dressing booth of the female underwear department? Did nor one object? Did the two walk in together? Were there no ther customers looking? How did the staff react to the commotion (and the noise?) that must have occurred? What about video evidence?
At any rate, there should be a major investigation, including witnesses.
1
Follow the money! Prosecutors will not coral Mr. Trump with unprovable accusations. Al Capone was jailed for tax evasion not more serious crimes. Following the money may show a paper trail of illegality. As bad as this is, Mr. Trump & his followers can just deny it. Follow the money in his life!
2
Under-coverage by the Times and other media of Carroll’s fully believable story showing the President of the United States as a rapist, reveals their assumption Trump is invulnerable. Trump acts above the law because he is above the law. His base believes in him no matter what he does, and the Republican Party enables him to violate the Constitution. The Democratic House majority is powerless, and the media reduced to a sideshow. America is less victim of moral decay than of division, between rural, white Christian values and the urban, multicultural perspective. Unfortunately, democracy is also a victim.
3
Legally an accusation like this would need corroboration. In addition our legal system puts the victim on trial as well. At trial Trump’s previous bad acts would not be admissible because they are accusations. Legal points aside I think that Trump’s actions clearly show a very disturbed person who should be in jail.
1
The time is long past for the American people and their representatives to admit out loud that the current President of the United States is a serial abuser. He abuses women, he abuses immigrants, he abuses people of color, he abuses Muslims, he abuses journalists, he abuses his fellow Republicans, Democrats, foreign dignitaries, children, and anyone else he chooses. Research the warning signs for abusive relationships: Donald Trump engages in every one of them, frequently and without remorse.
Abusive relationships only thrive in denial and shame. We the American people must be honest and outspoken about the situation we find ourselves in. We must be honest with each other and tell our representatives how we feel about their enabling behavior toward the President. We may never be able to change his behavior, but we must escape this toxic and dangerous situation, as quickly as we possibly can.
3
It seems to me that she must bear some blame for what happened. According to her own statement on MSNBC, she went with Trump to the dressing room with the undergarment expecting him to try it on. Did she need to do that?
1
This article is right on. The answer to the headline is "Yes, no doubt about it."
The question is: "What is the quickest means to putting him away (in prison)?"
I am beginning to think that his latest charge of sexual misconduct (!) against Trump may hurt him more than he thinks. A lot more. We can only hope so.
4
The Democrats need to take a stand and impeach Trump This would expose in great detail for the entire country to see the numerous High crimes and misdemeanors that he has perpetrated and continues to perpetrate at this time. They should do so while acknowledging that Republican senators may not, and probably will not have have the courage to convict. Not doing so allows the man to operate above the law and drag our democracy and international reputation into the mud.
1
While I understand your outrage, Charles, consider the recent comments of Lindsey Graham. Of the Trump rape allegations, Graham said that if Trump said it didn't happen, that was good enough for him. Yet in February of 2016, Trump said Lindsey Graham was one of the dumbest human beings he'd ever seen.
This week Trump's assessment was validated.
Take this all one step further. According to the most recent survey from Winthrop University, 74% of Republicans or those who lean Republican in South Carolina approve of Graham.
Take from all of that what you will but, at this point, even if Trump did walk out into the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot someone, it is likely that it wouldn't make much difference to either Graham or his supporters back home.
2
Well written, well put!
I'd say "wake me when it's over" if only I could sleep.
3
The greatest shame is not a peep out of the family values, bible-thumping GOP. Is it fear, self-preservation, hypocrisy? All of the above.
I'll bet it was the same on the other side of the pond back in the 1930s.
2
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for keeping this disgusting behavior by the now faux president of the U.S. in the news. I believe E. Jean Carroll because Trump has acknowledged this sort of behavior on tape and has made other depraved comments over the years on the Howard Stern show. Yet, he was elected by the electoral college. His rot will continue to show itself and it seems the people will say, yuck, and move on. Only if the Times, CBS, NBC, CNN and ABC and the Post keep it alive will any change happen. The media should on a daily basis talk, print or speak about this depravity and not let it disappear amidst all the other headlines. Rape is the use of force against a person and is a serious crime. School children hear about Ms. Carroll's assault and eventually will think 'the president did it, a Supreme Court justice was accused of it and nothing happened to them so it must be ok'. Great nations die little by little when good people do nothing.
2
Let's not be dumb here. It doesn't take the enlistment of a law firm or a magnifying glass to infer he is somebody that with exceedingly high probability has or has tried to violate women. Just watch his demeanor towards women on a daily basis. His first comments on allegations were "she’s not my type". Added to the fact he is a pathological liar. 100% obvious. End of story. And, this quote captures America today, in a perfect nutshell: "America, it seems to me, is drifting toward catastrophe...too many Americans are settling into a functional numbness, a just-let-me-survive-it form of sedation. But, that is where the edge of death is marked. That is where the rot begins. That is where a society loses itself." If you aren't worried yet about what's shortly coming down the road for America with Trump driving, you should be.
2
Three thoughts:
1. Of course it happened. Legally, there is nothing that can be done, and that must be factored in to the lack of response. It was over 20 years ago, so any impeachment would center on "he said-she said" and would go nowhere.
2. Of course it happened. Those who are in his camp, for whatever set of reasons, do. not. care. He really can do anything at all and there is no one to stop him. Those who loathe him still do, but see point #1 as to available next steps.
3. Of course it happened. This assault happened in seconds to a couple of minutes. There's no time to react, let alone think. She didn't report it, you say. Who would believe her? What would police have done? What would he have done to her in retaliation? Look at what she's facing today, so many years later. Do you really not understand why people don't report?
7
GOP: "We knew all this when he was elected. We knew he was a sexual predator, and liar. We knew he was a blowhard -- we knew it all. But we elected him because he hates the people we hate. He's biased in a way we like. He'll give us ultra-right judges, abuse immigrants, and put women 'in their place'. He'll tell us comforting lies, and tells us that we'll be great again, like back when only American mattered. He'll help the stock market."
That has not changed for the GOP. They knew he was a sexual predator, even a rapist, but they didn't (and don't now) care. Because they don't care, and they control "Justice" and the Senate, the GOP has made us feel like there will never be consequences for this guy, and that is hugely demoralizing. It puts the world out of kilter.
For those reasons, the Dems need to impeach. There has to be a sense of justice in America.
8
>>I say that this allegation, if true, is the most egregious offense. Not the most deadly or having the most consequences for future generations, but absolutely the most revelatory about character, privilege and abuse of power.<<
I didn't think of it this way but - you know what?
You're right.
3
Women DO NOT report rape when it happens ( or ever). People need to understand that concept and never forget it. It is clear why no one comes forward. They are treated like dirt when they do.
In addition, It was Trump who called for the EXECUTION of the 5 minor children ( Central Park 5) for a rape they did not commit. And he just 5 or 6 years later raped a women with no consequences. The difference, Trump never admits guilt and the young boys, were without representation and scared into a false confession.
When will Trump be held accountable???? His behavior is disgusting and always has been.
18
It’s difficult not to feel absolute despair knowing that at least 40% of our democracy, our so called shining city on the hill is composed of simpletons and/or wicked people. Despite all of our talk of morality, sacrifice, accountability, and the rule of law, the inability to find a majority in favor of Trump’s impeachment reveals our basic beliefs for what they are - conditional baloney. Our only hope is 2020.
10
Trump should face a jury for all the rape and sexual assault charges. As President of the United States he should be held to the highest moral standard not the lowest as he is.
Big mistake letting Trump's family into the United States from Germany starting in the late 1800's. All have turned out to be criminals and racists that have only taken from hard working Americans.
10
And we still have the persisting situation that as much as Charles and others despise Trump, tens of millions love him without qualification, among them millions of women who automatically dismiss such allegations (or secretly admire the president for a being a 'real' man). The fundamental problem is that the citizens of the same nation can disagree so deeply about this president that you wonder whether we're all from the same planet. But the bottom line is, enough people love Trump, and they live in the right areas of the country, to get him re-elected. Get ready for six more years of this.
2
Absolutely! Charles, I despair because quite frankly my vote DOESN’T COUNT. I am so tired of hearing about the “Elitists on the Coast”.
I am a 70 yr. old woman who has been a Democrat all her life and a resident of one of those “Elitists States”. I worked hard, raised two children and just recently left my demanding job. Yes, I was fortunate that I did well in school, went to a City College (although I was the best student of 7 children, City College was reasonable. ) I was fortunate to reinvent myself and retire in a reasonably secure state.
However I despair because my children, grandchildren, and my large family DON’T have a real say in how this country runs and moves forward from Climate Change, Nuclear War and Hate.
Given the current “devil’s bargain” made by McConnell and his crowd in the Senate, So-Called Evangelical “christians” that want us back in the 1800’s, the Koch contingent, NRA, racists (yes racists), the true ELITISTS who do not want to share the burden of taxes and the INEQUALITY In the ELECTORAL COLLEGE we don’t count, literally and figuratively!
Therefore the “predator in chief” will very possibly have 4 more years, unless Democrats are STRATEGIC enough to nominate the right candidate and NOT scare off the crowd who really counts in the 2020 election.
2
In response to the poster AI's incredulousness that Trump could ever invade a woman's dressing room:
Based on his past chicanery, I would say Trump is actually agile and expert at invading women's dressing rooms. The teen contestants that he bragged about peeping at, unchallenged, as they were changing should have breathed a sigh of relief that they weren't caught alone with him. As they would have most assuredly been "his type."
The head-shaking comment by AI that Trump "would not have been allowed" into the dressing room at an upscale store is incredible. But AI's assertion that Trump deserves an assumption of innocence reveals a troubling trend.
Under that rationale, a tendency is re-emerging to devalue or downgrade the veracity of an accuser who lacks hard physical evidence such as video or DNA.
It seems like a rebound effect following Kavanaugh's caddish performance, along with an insinuation that #metoo has "gone too far." The result is to weaken credibility for an accuser while emboldening perpetrators. They can deny the crime confidently, and even season their denial with righteous indignation too, hiding strong evidence of guilt behind legal principle. This squidgy misapplication of presumptive innocence insulates criminals and can have a dampening, discouraging effect on the accuser.
7
I understand the hesitancy to believe all accusations, but in the case of a billionaire, I would be too afraid to accuse him. There's no limit of the harm he could/would do to an accuser. He's put vendors out of business, refused to pay contractors, sued repeatedly those who stood up to up, stiffed his lawyers, etc., etc.
On top of limitless funds to go after those he's mad at, he's vindictive and boasts of it.
10
I agree with Mr. Blow’s outrage. Trump is a monster and ruins lives on a retail and wholesale scale.
To fight him in 2020 we need a motto that cuts to the core of his depravity. I suggest MAGA, redefined as “Make America Good Again.”
9
That’s great, Lew - I agree!
3
This story is shocking and deeply troubling if true. Most likely difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in my non professional opinion. What i find reprehensible is what DJT is doing and and has done that there is good evidence for. Impeachable offenses. We have to keep our eye on the goal. Impeaching DJT
2
The stories that came out during the 2016 campaign, surely at least some of them are true. Trump is also clearly an adulterer as he publicly cheated on his first wife and he paid off two other women in 2016 to withhold their stories. But it is not unreasonable to ask why Ms. Carroll did not speak out during the 2016 campaign.
1
@tanstaafl: just think of what happened to those who did speak out during the 2016 election - the immediate accusation was that they were opportunists who were inventing accounts to damage DJT’s election chances...
So which is it... it seems most likely that most if not all were true and that it should be up to them when they choose to raise the issue. Earlier would have been better, but we need to make it easier for women to come forward, particularly with men in positions of power.
Of course, we also should not make it harder for men to prove innocence.
2
Tanstaafl: you must be a man to ask such a question that why she didn’t say anything about incident. I told my male friend angrily and emotionally about the assaults I encountered as a teenager and a college student because my male friend posted the same question about Dr Ford right after the congressional hearings. These happened to me over 50 years ago. There are many reasons such as shame, insecurity, lack of opportunities, what can be done, etc.
9
@tanstaafl: it is not illegal to commit adultery.
It is not illegal to cheat on your spouse and have affairs.
No matter how many stories come out on any person or subject….EACH ONE must be judged individually and not as a group.
There is a lot of motivation here for Trump-haters to want to see him destroyed, so if anything we have to be MORE careful that each story is thoroughly investigated.
And it is very suspicious Ms. Carroll did not speak out in 2016 when so many others did. She waited until her book was finished and she wanted to market it.
1
I've always believed all of the women who accused him. Never a doubt in my mind. Just listening to him makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
11
False accusations of sexual assault are exceedingly rare.
8
@beberg1. That is a totally unproven statement that has no evidence to support it. The assumption you are using, are probably past studies of PROVEN false accusations. The vast number of accusations are not prosecuted or proven. The assumption that only the accusations proven false does not reflect the number of false accusation. It only represents the ones where investigations proved innocents. If only 8% are found guilty, would you say 92% are false accusations. I don’t think so.
1
@beberg1: there is absolutely NO WAY to prove that, especially as the left ALSO SAYS "most instances of sexual assault are never reported".
1
@Jay My opinion isn't based on "past studies." It is merely my recollection that after reviewing data from roughly 20,000 agency reports of sexual assault/abuse there was only one false accusation.
1
Listening to a Republican woman admit that while believing the women accusing Trump of sexual assault, she "revered" him and would "revere" him even more if he admitted it was both repellent and illuminating of the mystery of the GOP's collapse into a moral abyss in pursuit of power. But don't underestimate the intensity of the majority's disgust with this repellent man AND his reverential base.
6
“Exceedingly rare,” except in the case of accusing a black or LatinX male. Those are exceedingly common.
Trump has gotten away with it because of white privilege and bullying.
1
Unfortunately I am no longer surprised by any action by or allegation against Trump. Just sickened, disgusted, offended, angry and quite a few other adjectives. He has no morals, no ethics, no compassion, no empathy, no belief that he is subject to the rule of law. He has been like this since I first started to hear about him in the 1980s. And he's faced no real consequences. He violated fair housing laws and got a slap on the wrist, he refuses to pay vendors and employees and suffers no real penalty, he sexually assaults women and buys his way out of it, he destroys businesses and their employees lives and simply declares bankruptcy. He brags about taking advantage of women and the evangelicals don't care as long as he appoints the right judges, he treats refugees like animals and many don't care because they share his bigotry. We have a monster in the White House and a lot of people have enabled and encouraged him over the years. It's sad to say that politics are now more important than doing what is right and holding him accountable finally. But once again he's getting away without consequences.
13
Not the first such President. Clinton was equally credibly accused of rape, and of lesser crimes of sexual assault.
There is something wrong with how we choose our political leaders, of both parties.
6
@Jonathan Katz: the range of DJT’s apparent malfeasances significantly outranks Clinton’s (extending to disdain for the rule of law, foreign favors and financial self-serving). But the general point is taken.
While I share your outrage, Mr. Blow, it is misdirected at Congressional Democrats and the American public. The sole reason that Trump has not been impeached is that the Republican Senate would acquit him without giving the impeachment any semblance of serious consideration. And the sole reason that the Republican Senate would acquit him is that Trump's base, which accounts for 90 percent of Republican voters, remain inalterably loyal to him. Those voters would remain loyal, as Trump himself said, if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue - or if he raped someone in a department store.
There is indeed a moral rot in our country, but the rot emanates from those who remain loyal to our history's most corrupt criminal president.
12
This is why I am leaving the US and moving overseas to an island. I simply cannot live out my elderly years getting outraged every day. It is making me sick.
7
@Mary Louise Abbruzzese
Amen sister, another year left here before we can move but move we will. I don’t care if I have to live in a shack somewhere but we are leaving. My husband and I are moving where we can have healthcare without waiting till we die before retirement age and because republicans. Can’t/don’t/will not live the rest of my days under their authoritarian rule. Honestly my mental health can’t take it anymore.
4
@tjcenter
I am moving to the Greek Island of Rhodes. Very inexpensive, can live off my social security, enjoy a healthful Mediterranian diet, and stroll alongside the sea in the evenings.
I can try to accept that Trump was elected by a substantial minority of voters. I cannot accept that a man of such cruelty and brutality can maintain an approval rating higher than zero. What really dumbfounds me is how the pious could have glommed onto this creature as their savior.
8
It’s a real disgrace that a credible rape accusation against the President of the United States is largely ignored.
I think Mitch McConnell is as guilty as Trump in the destruction of our country’s foundation and values. McConnell has violated his oath of office by doing no oversight to while Trump ignores our Constitution and rips apart our Democracy.
8
Nice to put the accusation as a question rather than as a statement, but we know where Mr. Blow stands on this issue. Trump may very well be guilty of sexual assault in one or more instances. He's certainly a narcissistic liar, among his many other faults.
But he was also elected President, and will remain so until January 2021 unless he is impeached. Very few people, whether they voted for him or not, are surprised by the many allegations against him. Despite that they voted for him because they felt the establishment of both political parties had failed them. The fact that the voters elected an individual with as much moral and ethical baggage as Donald Trump should be serious warning to both parties.
Mr. Blow might want to focus on that rather than routine denunciations of Trump.
4
As many others are saying, we have ended up in a bad place, irrespective of Trump, but I see a different chronology to this awful place we're now in.
I say the rot set in with the elevation of celebrity culture to almost that of deism. Paris Hilton and the Kardashian brood first arrived with sex tapes and we were shocked; shocked, we said, but soon it was absorbed, then normalized and we carried on with celebrity worship. These people are only famous for being famous. How shallow can you be.
Then came the ascendancy of Facebook and the other social networks. Now we are simply avatars; normality is no more. We are mostly in ideological silos of our own choosing; liberals and conservatives. These feed our prejudices and hopes, disdain our enemies and crucially, block out all views we don't agree with.
Trump is merely a symptom, not the cause of our predicament. He is a foul, ignorant thug of a man, but he is what a slim majority of the electoral college system's voters has given us. The biggest problem though, is that the societal dysfunction that gave us Trump is unchanged at this time, so further damage to the country is inevitable.
4
Sexual harassment is a crime and need to be treated as such. The victim must file a police report and let the prosecutors weigh the evidence. Trying such crime on TV, newspaper or even congress is not going to change any minds or lead to any useful outcome. It will only serve to distract from true national security issues that require the congress and the public to be vigilant to prevent a disastrous war or increasing humanitarian crisis on the border. The current occupant of the White House wins if we start debating a he said/ she said crime committed 25 years ago.
2
Rape is an impeachable offense. The statute of limitations really doesn't apply. Congress decides whether he is guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors. If this doesn't qualify, what does?
11
How do we discuss a predatory act and not be outraged to the point of being moved to take action?
After all, that's the essence of this article.
Donald Trump is an irredeemable, amoral man who should not have been permitted to get as far as he has but for the societal problem of white privilege and the conflation of notoriety with fame or wealth with worthiness.
There is a cancer in our world of men seeking power and doing so at the expense of the people around them. It's the byproduct of wealth and double standards of behavior expected by them, and, all too often, afforded to them by people who are used to being consigned to second-class citizen status.
We have reached a point where that can change.
If this next presidential election can include the erosion of truth-telling, and of corruption at high levels of office - we can make a major step toward stopping this runaway train.
If we don't, god help us all.
7
A public impeachment will draw many to agree with the House that Trump deserves the asterisk that will forever mark his occupation of the White House as illegitimate, corrupt, and treasonous.
The televised McCarthy hearings caused many American to open their eyes to what was being done to our country.
The Senate won't convict, of course, since they are as corrupt as Donald, but the voters will be freed from the shackles that bind them.
21
All of what you say is true Charles and I share your passion about it, but in the end I have to ask: What is the solution? We can't just keep railing about all the crimes and turmoil emanating from Trump, we have to start DOING something!
That means calling, writing, tweeting, yelling, demonstrating until Nancy Pelosi abandons her political calculus and invokes articles of impeachment. Waiting for court cases and their endless appeals until they wind up at the bench of the SCOTUS where Trump now has a "get out of jail free card" isn't going to deliver what you, and I, and most Americans want: justice!
Keep speaking the truth Mr. Blow!
14
When it comes to sexual misconduct, Trump is probably in the same class as Bill Clinton. For decades the Democrat party looked the other way when it came to Clinton's sexual misconduct while the Evangelical right tried to use it to destroy his presidency. Now the tables have turned. The Democrats have taken on the role of the old Evangelicals in the age of Trump. As someone who stood by and defended Clinton through thick and thin, I am disappointed with the hypocrisy of Democrats on this issue. Of course if there is hard evidence of rape that is an issue. But when it's he said/she said, this is no different than the accusations against Clinton.
5
A passionate piece by Charles Blow which I appreciate. Passionate and frightening. It's not a question, as the headline timidly asks. Clearly, from Ms. Carroll's description, rape occurred.
4
Claims about an event that may have occurred over 30 years ago are irrelevant and not worthy of discussion even if it is in the paper that prints all there is to hate Trump.
5
And what about the many, many other women who accuse Trump...should we disregard them, too?
1
Do you want to make a credible accusation? Go to the police when the assault happens, not ten or fifteen years later when you are trying to sell a book.
7
@SB If you think it is that easy, you don't understand or have not been paying attention to how women are treated when they accuse a man of rape, even if it is immediately. Look for the stories of women suing police departments for failing to investigate their claims, of rape kits sitting untested on shelves. Of women attacked in court because they were wearing a short dress or had had a glass of wine.
And as bad as it is today, it was that much worse and then some years ago when Ms Carroll had her experience.
2
How many stories are locked behind confidentiality agreements and shame?
9
Charles is quite right, the citizens of this country in large part have abdicated their role as a moral check on those who govern us. Specifically the President. But how to remedy it is something we cannot seem to get a hold of. Trump has an 86% approval rating amongst the Republicans, that’s in the 60+ million range. Where do you start? Impeachment sounds like the right place, but first shouldn’t we hear from Robert Mueller? Or, maybe censure him in the House. But even impeachment will take months, and we all know what the outcome will be.
Sadly I have to agree with Charles, the system is broken, we can’t even get some funding for the kids at those border camps, so they can have a decent, clean place to sleep.
And is Trump a rapist, yes, of course he is. The country knows this too, but again, where do you start? I'm at a total loss as to what and how to go about bringing Trump to justice until he's out of office.
3
"America needs to give these women, and the accusations they’ve brought forth, the full attention they deserve."
Totally agree with Charles - Jean Carroll got a lot more attention than she deserved.
3
I have experienced PTSD symptoms during this era of Trump. It has taken me right back to my sad traumatic childhood in the Bible Belt. I wish I knew what to do but I don’t. Our old system of “lettting your Representatives know” does not work anymore, the Democrats behaving like this is just a matter of “going to the polls” is destructive and de- moralizing. He breaks the law every single day. Why have law enforcement not raided the camps, where is Child Protective Services? It’s like no one knows what to do.
6
Once again, what about the child rape accusation that was an active court case until a few days before the 2016 election? A woman filed a deposition stating in great detail that she was brutally raped by Trump when she was a thirteen year old girl, at a party at his old pal Jeffrey Epstein's house. Her account was unsusual in that she had a witness, a woman who corroborated her story. A judge ordered the case to move forward. At the last minute, she dropped her suit because of threats against her.
No coverage in the mainstream media because her complaint was anonymous.
9
@Jane Grey
I have wondered the same thing, especially after the Miami Herald’s explosive piece about the slap on the wrist that Epstein got for multiple counts of statutory rape, how the victims were illegally kept out of the plea deal that Epstein cut, and about how the prosecutor got a cushy appointment by Trump after allowing Epstein to skate.
4
Mr. Blow is absolutely right in his assessment about Trump’s ongoing onslaught on our lives.
As a rich playboy real estate mogul, Trump’s behavior patterns have been historically marked by these key propensities: persistent anti social behavior, total lack of empathy or remorse and disinhibited egotistical traits. His “Raison d’être” has always been: “What is in it for me”. Trump doesn’t have loyalty to anyone else. He won by his divisive demagoguery centered around chauvinism, misogyny, xenophobia, racism and of course, playing up his rich celebrityhood by being the ultimate “King of Kitsch”.
Now he has become a presidential enigma by shattering all societal norms of comity and also by terrorizing everyone with his relentless brutal bullying through his extemporaneous verbal rants or Tweets ridden with malapropism and fractured syntax.
In other words, he has managed to intimidate all of us into a state of traumatic disorder of denial, apathy and hopeless despair. Consequently, as a nation, we are gradually sinking into this dysfunctional dystopian state as a result of Trump’s despotic behavior.
Meshuga continues - Oy Vey!
1
We believe that Trump has a seriously ingrained mentality that brings a degree of harm, wrought from the lowest degree of human intent, to every breath he takes ... every physical act ... to whomever happens to be in his path. Toxic is an understatement.
3
The most terrible part of Trump's presidency is that so many people still support him. The reason? People like to see a leader who is deeply flawed, because they feel their own flaws then are not really such bad flaws. They have given up on the idea of having a leader who is privately and morally beyond reproach. They'd rather have a leader who implicitly absolves them of their own sins, because he's just as flawed as they are. So in this sense yes, indeed, the Trump's presidency is a sign of a profoundly decayed society, where a cheap reality tv "personality" becomes president. The very fact that people will watch such shows is disturbing, and it is part of the reason we have such president. For gosh sake, I remember seeing some people at Trump's rallies wearing T-shirts that said "Grab ME by the p...." How shocking is that? Or is anyone shocked by this any more? And then there are the Democrats who publicly denigrated Hillary because they were infatuated by another ageing white male populist, thus contributing to Trump's victory. Let's hope the Democrats unite behind whomever emerges from the Primary process, and that they stop thinking that, if THEIR candidate does not win the primaries, it must mean that they are rigged, rather than accepting that maybe, just maybe not every Democrat thinks the way they do.
1
E. Jean Carroll is credible. Trump, according to the Washington Post, has told over 10,000 lies since inauguration. Over 20 women have accused Trump of sexual assault. And, of course, we have the Hollywood Access tape.
Who do you believe?
4
Mr. Blow fails to mention the obvious and important reason that Donald Trump's behavior is overlooked - that is because the Democrats were similarly opportunistic when it came to the behavior of Bill Clinton. The excusing of Clinton's behavior continues to this day. You reap what you sow.
4
Sorry Mr. Blow, but there really does NOT appear to be any "breaking point." This man can apparently say and do whatever he wants.
1
Lies and denials are standard for the Orange Menace. His " she's not my type " is over the top. It says that he would assault someone IF they were his type. He assaults our country, our neighbors, the air we breathe. he thinks he can do whatever he wants because he is donald j. trump and' as he puts it, it " I'm the President, right? It is time to make a stand and hold him accountable for his assaults on women, on children and on our morals. It is not enough that he may leave town after the election he needs to be held accountable now, his actions are criminal, hold him accountable now, not some vague time in the future but now. And I can only hope that the NYT and other papers show that they support that victims should be heard and that this criminal should be held accountable, NOW!
1
When a country and its leaders turn a deaf ear and turn away from a woman’s cry for justice, cry for help, and a cry to save her honor, then that country and especially the leaders will come to an ignoble and horrific end.
This is not a just a question of sexual harassment or rape. This is a question of this country’s moral fiber and character of its leaders. A woman’s cry for justice is no ordinary cry. It wrenches the gut and heart of God. I am not a Bible thumper, by the way.
Justice has to be done. Every person who has a mother, daughter, sister or wife should rise up against this injustice done to this woman and others like her. I fear the consequences of this callous, insensitive and lackadaisical attitude. This is not what America is all about. This week we took another step towards the destruction of our society.
1
The title of the piece needs another word. Let the fourth word be "Serial." It would lead to a more accurate answer.
3
Thank you Charles for respecting the unique and inalienable value of the other person. Trumps cruelty to fellow humans is a long and sorry tale. His supporters remain quiet when it comes to rape.
The custodians of the curtain of silence are his supporters. The atmosphere of intimidation they've created has stifled victims. From Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club to be Epstein's “sex slave island,” rather than an open discussion of rape we deem it sexual assault or some other jargon. For example, Trump buddy and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was charged by Trump cabinet member Alexander Acosta with soliciting a minor for prostitution. The simple fact that there is no "child prostitute" escaped them.
By suppressing the E. Jean Carroll rape, Trump has once again managed to avoid the moral judgement of the civilized world. His ringleaders are racing to the bottom and sanctioning yet another criminal act made acceptable in this nightmare time.
1
There already has been one “Teflon Don״. Eventually though the teflon gave out.
Some people however seem to live charmed Teflon lives as in the case of the present Teflon Don”.
2
And how do you propose we address this? Take him to the dysfunctional, biased-towards-a-party-court system without a shred of evidence? Which is why nothing seem to be happening. When people like Manafort can escape severe punishment for our guy in WH this is a breeze in comparison!
We can wax about our laws but they cannot stand to this bully's might and insolence
2
A well stated article, once again. I thought that when the democrats won the House there would be checks and balances placed on this administration. After hearing constant equivocation coming from House members, I fear that we as a country are lost. They are placing their bets on the 2020 election and have abdicated their current responsibilities: first and foremost to hold this poser responsible for his actions. Heaven help us all if this perverted excuse for a human being wins the 2020 election.
1
Carroll has stated earlier that at Bergdorf Goodman it was near closing time, and the floor was nearly empty. Two thoughts: I worked at Lord and Taylor’s about the same time Carroll says the rape happened. It is true that at the end of the day, the store empties out, sales people would close up their cash registers and drift away. Not to mention the fact that, even in those good old days, there were not legions of sales people even in the women’s sections. As it happens, I know of another couple who went shopping at a department store about 20 years ago. They thought it would be, I don’t know, funny? Titillating? To have sex in the women’s dressing room of the store and did so. I believe Carroll’s statement completely. She is an established and well regarded writer with a national reputation. Why on Earth would she say this happened if it didn’t?
2
@Gerad Hopkins: I worked retail for years. Nobody "drifted away" at closing time.
In fact, one of my jobs was as a "dressing room guard". One of our DUTIES was to clear out and inspect the dressing rooms for leftover merchandise.
Bergdorfs is a very high end store, with expensive merchandise. They would NEVER abandon a dressing area at closing -- because of SHOPLIFTING!!!!
Also, if the store clerks WERE leaving, they would be required to LOCK EVERYTHING UP.
Carroll says herself that the dressing rooms were NORMALLY LOCKED. She said she was surprised to find them completely open on this ONE occasion.
She says there were no clerks anywhere around.
She said it was "dusk" -- in late 1995 or early 1996 -- winter -- she said Trump wore a winter coat.
Shouldn't it be pretty easy to find some Bergdorf employees and check this out? What were their hours that winter? were the dressing rooms locked? would a department have NO employees at roughly 6-7PM?
1
@Concerned Citizen
Nice attempt at defending Donald.
A couple of points: Yes, employees drifted away at closing time. Shoplifters took/take advantage of that well-known phenomenon.
Trump always wears a winter coat. Hides his big gut and big behind. (He thinks.)
2
If nothing happens over this, I am ashamed of and afraid for my country. Impeachment is the answer!
2
Come on...trump allegedly assaults a woman in a dressing room at Bergdoff’s? Where were the customers or the sales staff? 25 years. and a book later, she recounts the episode? Sounds like she and Michael avenatti are a perfect match!
6
Let's start with saying that this is not OK. One can find out that something is not OK by the easy way or by the hard way. We have to be willing to force responsibility on those who need to learn the hard way or else we become the ones who learn the hard way that it has now become ok. While there is not enough evidence to prove that Trump committed rape beyond a reasonable doubt, there is enough evidence that Trump's denial is not a statement that this is not ok. That is enough to sway the court of public opinion. That is how we can hold Trump accountable for this before 2020. Seek out your Trump supporting friends and neighbors. Make them explain how "she's not my type" is ok. Ask them if it's ok for a sexual predator to become president. If we can turn 1 in 3 Trump supporters, the Senate will convict. As you've noted, it's in their DNA.
2
Trump's existence, especially in high office, is an insult to women everywhere, every day.
6
The media may have moved on as they did with the children in cages till it once again exploded through the lawyers who visited the children and held their own media moment so then the hate was once again in our faces. The lawyers showed concern, people wanted to believe that Trump had changed,once again he lied
The only people who are not concerned are serial rapist , the supreme court appointee. football /teenagers at elite schools who rape fellow students with brooms, they name it hazing but it is rape, police officers, who raped Abner also with a broom. everyday life in prisons where the guards fail to protect inmates and laugh. Decent people are very concerned. The way these fake religious people are so concerned about the unborn but fail to care about the assaults on a females body.
We are allowing ourselves to morph into heartless monsters we need to fight back everyday otherwise we will be lost for generations. Our children have become self centered we see them walk by the homeless with their phones on as if nothing matters but them. We see young girls arriving from Mexico having been raped by smugglers or prison guards. I am outraged and our groups are doing something about it. We all need to e active and keep dismantling the brick wall of indifference.
Once again thank you for this very pointed piece we need to live a life of grace, honor not one wrapped in indifferent thoughts that add up to being on the sidelines vs proactive action.
1
Trump had us on the eve of destruction a few days ago and he may yet take us there again given the Bolton-Pompeo total fixation on blowing up Iran and Trump's own love affair with Saudi Arabia and its Prince.
I fear the worst but still hope it does not come before Elizabeth Warren becomes my new president in 2020.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
2
Charles - What you say is true, but Ms. Carroll refuses to press rape charges even though there is no statute of limitations. So while those who can still feel outrage are rightly horrified and angered, nothing will come of this incident. Trump’s supporters and enablers have chosen to accept this and other abhorrent behaviors as long as Trump continues to appoint conservative, anti-abortion judges and rail against immigrants and others perceived to be a threat to the way of life enjoyed by uneducated white men. This is why Trump can literally get away with rape and could shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
3
Ms. Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leaders: Enough with the Kumbaya, let's get along approach. Do it or move over and let somebody with guts take over. Time to start impeachment procedures. It might not pass the Senate but the information it will uncover and will be reported by the media might be enough to sway the few moral conservative souls left. It is the right thing to do. The toddler is destroying the store, stop negotiating, stop pleading. Remove him from the store now or move over and let somebody with the guts do it. Trying is better than doing nothing. I am so disgusted with the Democratic party right now. As usual, good old weaklings trying to get along and reason with Mothra. Time to use the Republican playbook against themselves NOW.
3
I am reminded of how, not too long ago, Gary Hart had to withdraw his candidacy due to the publishing of a photo of him on a boat with a lady (not his wife) sitting on his lap. 45’s character, or lack thereof, was well documented before the election and yet...... The party in power has allowed our national narrative to be debased by this man and his cronies and the damage incurred will be the legacy we leave to future generations.
2
Her dress is evidence. Do a DNA test.
2
If Trump dropped dead the problems that face the US like the military industrial complex, endless war, massive migration due to population explosion and environmental degradation worldwide, massive underemployment in the US with income inequality, massive worldwide fossil energy demand, and destruction of our planet would remain unchanged. The leading democratic candidates of the last two elections have not been encouraging to any degree. The electorate and punditocracy does not seem to be entranced by any other sort of candidate. We get what our political leadership class feed us whether they be white or black. And I am a POC.
3
Trump — who’s given to suing anyone to get his way — could easily put an end to this by suing the woman.
But he won’t.
Why?
Because a proper investigation will not clear his name.
1
The democrats are afraid of the violence that Trump's base will unleash should he be held accountable. If the democrats can't find the courage to do the right thing for once we are already done.
People should remember that Trump's base is mostly old and unstable people who are not very strong. They are highly unlikely to be able to throw a violent coup. Of course, that is not the plan anyway. The plan is to destroy the government from within. Standing by passively really only helps them in that effort.
One actually has to consider that the upper levels of the DFL may in fact be moles hired to protect the wealthy by assuring that no truly progressive policies are ever adapted. Only weak minor adjustments that really solve nothing. Much like the ACA.
1
I am a liberal and I believe in being honest with my fellow liberals. News flash, no one cares. That is the state of Trump's America. Like it or not he can get away with things that would sink the careers of any other politician. His base does not care and a lot of independent and progressives are so fed up of the Trump era that they have begun to tune him out. Blame the Mueller report and the democrats failure to make any political hay from that report and all of the other accusations of misconduct that have landed like a thud when it comes to Trump. People are just to exhausted to care anymore.
1
Sure, but he hasn't shot anybody on 5th Ave. yet - not that that would make any difference to his supporters either.
2
All that Trump does, he does in my name and I am deeply, deeply offended by that. He represents the minority, the worst that is America: nativist, racist, transactional, out only for himself, and cares only for the immediate, short term gain. I am none of these things. America and Americans in general, as I have come to know about this country and my fellow citizens, are none of these things.
Yet, as Mr. Blow noted, many, oh so many of us are numbed. When Trump was first elected, millions marched against what we thought he would be. That has come and gone and he has turned out to be worse than we thought.
Where are the millions? Why are we not in the streets? Why are our Representatives' and Senators' mailboxes not overflowing with our disgust, with our cries of "Not in my name!"?
Where is the oversight in Congress? Has the Democratic Party simply rolled over, pulled their blankets over their head?
Where are the millions marching against the concentration camps run by our government that house separated children and parents whose only crime is that they are legally seeking asylum from horrors that are unimaginable (and therefore non-existent) to us. Where are the millions in the street screaming, "Not in my name!"?
I have written, donated, and done all that I can; but, it's not enough. It is time for this country to take to the streets to take our country back.
It's time to stand up to "president" Trump and shout, "Not in my name!"
1
Well written, Mr. Blow.
I'm not sure which factors explain it:
Is it that half the population is below average intelligence?
Is it that you CAN fool some of the people all the time?
Is it that we have become so inured to moral turpitude that we don't care anymore?
Are our expectations of leaders so low that this behavior is deemed normal?
Is a significant percentage of our population so mis- or dis-informed that they never see these accusations?
Are human beings really capable of intelligent self-governance?
Never in my life did I expect to see such behavior by the President of the United States.
Never in my life did I expect to see Republicans in Congress turn a blind eye.
Never in my life did I think that our country could abandon all restraint, thereby encouraging the unimaginable.
These are truly dark times.
2
I agree with Charles Blow that we have a sexual predator in the White House. If the statute of limitations was in effect in New York at that time, apparently he can't be prosecuted for the most current scandal. But that doesn't mean Trump 's predatory behavior should be ignored.
His accusers can be called to testify in impeachment hearings. They can be sitting in the audience at his debates and campaign speeches. (As he did with Bill Clinton's accusers in debates with Hillary.)
Of course, his threatening behavior may intimidate the accusers, who required courage to even speak up in the first place. But then that would tell us even more about the person who now leads the U.S. and the free world, wouldn't it?
2
You are absolutely spot on. This country is in a shambles, morally, ethically, and in all other ways. The sheer meanness and depravity of my fellow Americans still shocks me. The depths to which we sink seems to know no bounds. Money and greed are the soul of this country. Nothing else seems to have meaning anymore and no avenue for change appears effective or even available. Yet, here we are and what do we do to begin to address the problems when we are choked with rage and frustration? A do-nothing Democratic leadership is only slightly outdone by the sycophantic Republicans. What, Mr. Blow, can any person do to effect this? As far as I can tell, nothing but vote in 2020. For too many people living in this rigged system the only appeal we have left is to write to our Republican Congressmen/women, the very people that brought this calamity upon us. We have no voice. Our vote can be the only expression of our despair- and again, in a Deep Red state like mine, it is pointless.
The timing is suspicious.
6
Provide:
1. Police Report
2. DNA Evidence
3. Eye Witnesses
5
@Caterina Sforza: Ms. Carroll made no report, despite her friend Lisa Birnbach insisting she must do so.
There were no eye witnesses. Ms. Carroll did not demand the store video surveillance tapes either. They are long gone by now.
She has the "coat dress" which she claims was never laundered, but has not submitted for DNA processing.
She wore it to a photo shoot for the cover of New York Magazine -- meaning, she has contaminated it as evidence.
1
@Caterina Sforza, 22 women.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.” - John Dalberg-Acton.
And there we are. This is a perfect description of this administration and it was stated in 1887.
In one word, yes. He had no business running for office.
Thank you for the line "Which type is rape-worthy?", Mr. Blow. It's such a good clarification of Donald Trump's sickness (and not his alone). And notice that he put "she's not my type" before "it didn't happen". But this is why Donald Trump has to make war on facts. Because if truth is just his fantasy of the moment, then his supporters don't have to confront who he really is, and can get by in their own minds with some variation of the "boys will be boys" attitude. Of course, they ought to be ashamed of thinking "boys will be boys", but it's a habit, and one that a lot of people can share together and so get a warm, fuzzy feeling of solidarity. Imagine, feeling warm and fuzzy about excusing rape. Only, just that has been going on for thousands of years, not merely during the Trump Administration.
Why would anyone think this woman is not telling the truth? I find it hard to believe that she would make up a story like this to submit herself to the vitriol she has experienced just to sell a book or any other reason. It just doesn't make sense. However, Mr. Blow is correct about our society. Many of us are functioning like the characters in "Waiting For Godot." The master and the slave. The reality is the problem goes beyond societal norms. We are a nation today controlled by powerful people who have lost the ability to empathize because they have been powerful for so long and have never had to pay any consequence for their behavior. They only view others as objects through their soulless, empty eyes.
Ok Charles Blow. You have made me cry. I struggle every day, hoping I, we, survive this nightmare. I read the articles, try to keep my eyes open. Then sleep-walk, numbly through days and nights. But your words cut so deeply, I feel the depth of my silent panic.
Trump is not merely defending sociopathic behavior.
He is not merely normalizing it.
He is insisting that sociopathy being rewarded.
Please remember, readers and citizens: males as well as females, of all ages, are assaulted by sexual predators. Some, more than once. Just ask law enforcement for their expertise on the cases that have been reported.
More cases are never reported.
Anyone you know, including you yourself, whoever you might be, may fall victim to such a violent, degrading, traumatic crime.
Thank you for writing about this and speaking out, Charles Blow, NYT and everyone. Thank you, E. Jean Carroll, for finding the strength to be heard, one more time.
1
If a president cannot be taken to court, then there is your problem. If changing the head of state can only be done with the 25th amendment, there is your problem. If the cabinet is made up of unelected toadies, there is your problem. America’s system of governance is sorely in need of a fix.
2
We're told by experts that rape is about power.
When the accused responds with a statement about the accuser not being his "type" the question occurs that perhaps the accuser isn't accustomed to using sex as a way to assert power.
The idea of the accusers' "type" being a factor may be an indication that, if nothing else, rape is not an objective (and opens the door to lust instead).
Not to deny Ms Carrolls' memories, but when she discussed rape as a popular sexual fantasy and when the question of "type" (and the lust factor) is involved, we have to consider this isn't an easy case. Then, there is the question of an un-monitored dressing room in Bergdorfs - which in my experience is improbable.
After all these years, with no police report to document contemporaneous facts, I'm inclined to give the whole complaint a pass. Sorry.
2
Have we forgotten that there was a woman who said Trump raped her when she as 13? That woman dropped her case out of fear of then candidate Trump. I don't wonder if this case happened. I wonder how many more victims there are who haven't wanted to talk out of fear of publicity or threats of retaliation.
1
"Does nothing now matter that used to matter?"
When exactly did it used to matter? When were the accusations of sexual assault victims taken seriously? When were women not attacked by police/judges/the public for what they were wearing or how much they were drinking or for ruining the prospects of this promising football player/baseball player/choose-your-sport? When were boys not silenced by the Catholic Church, or by colleges and universities more concerned for their reputations than the psyche of the victims? We all heard Trump brag about his ability to sexually assault women and get away with it because he's famous, the GOP backed him, and we elected him anyway.
When was this magical time when victims of sexual assault mattered?
House Democrats should impeach Donald Trump and the first article of impeachment (of several) should be not for obstruction of justice or acceptance of campaign help from a foreign power, but rape.
Suppose for the sake of argument that Trump had in fact been convicted of rape at some time in the past but the conviction was sealed. No suppose the court records were unsealed, and it was known unequivocally that the president had been found guilty of the charge.
We now find ourselves in the non-hypothetical situation where the president has been credibly accused of just such a violent felony but the likelihood of this charge being adjudicated in criminal court is negligible. Trump supporters take refuge in the fact that he has never been convicted of such a crime, but really that should be no comfort to them at all. What should intolerable to everyone, Republicans very much included, is not that a president should be a convicted felon but that a president should be a rapist, and if there is any question that the president might be a rapist, an answer to that question should be sought by any and all means available.
One path to such an answer would be a criminal investigation and trial in New York, though the statute of limitations is a likely obstacle. Another, perhaps more fruitful avenue, would be impeachment in the House. Let Trump’s accuser and other pertinent witnesses testify under oath. Let Trump defend himself also.
But do NOT sweep it under the rug.
If Donald Trump starts calling any candidates names at any debates, will they retort by calling him an (alleged) rapist?
Should they sink to that level or stay on the issues lost medical care, increased (and increasing -- AFTER the November 3, 2020 election) taxes for the middleclass, decreased taxes for corporations and very rich, inability to write off deductions for nonprofits, global warming, crop loss, trade war, etc. ?
Mr. Blow, what is it you want us to do? I believe Carroll, but she chose and is still choosing not to go to the police, where the issue might be settled the way the law prescribes. The GOP and Trump's supporters know what kind of man he is, and they don't care. So what do the rest of us do? Hold our breath until we turn blue? Go out in the street and yell again, with the predictable lack of effect? After you've publicly expressed your contempt for Donald Trump a few thousand times, will a few thousand times more matter?
1
Thank you Mr. Blow, for another excellent, hard-hitting analysis. Painful as it is, it is the truth. I agree with a commentator below that history will judge the Democrats' tepid response--politically calculated, unprincipled unwillingness to start an impeachment inquiry--harshly; as it will the Senate's abrogation of duty/principle/humanity under the leadership of Mitch McConnell. And I am horrified by the credible story of the rape Ms. Carroll experienced. I am equally disturbed that even now she seems to claim some responsibility for "stupidly" walking into the dressing room...and calling this a "fight" rather than a "rape" because others have experienced much more serious violence. No! It's not HER FAULT that this occurred--it's 1000% the cunning and predatory strategy of a criminal! Furthermore, such an act has no sliding scale--it is violent and brutal and should be called RAPE--and anyone capable of any version of it should not be holding the office of President of the United States. I believe it is far beyond the time when these allegations should be investigated, along with the piles of other credible charges--fraud, money laundering, violations of the emoluments clause, obstruction, and collusion, among others--as the high crimes and misdemeanors they are--in the context of impeachment inquiry!
1
House Democrats should impeach Donald Trump and the first article of impeachment (of several) should be not for obstruction of justice or acceptance of campaign help from a foreign power, but rape.
Suppose for the sake of argument that Trump had in fact been convicted of rape at some time in the past but the conviction was sealed. No suppose the court records were unsealed, and it was known unequivocally that the president had been found guilty of the charge.
We now find ourselves in the non-hypothetical situation where the president has been credibly accused of just such a violent felony but the likelihood of this charge being adjudicated in criminal court is negligible. Trump supporters take refuge in the fact that he has never been convicted of such a crime, but really that should be no comfort to them at all. What should intolerable to everyone, Republicans very much included, is not that a president should be a convicted felon but that a president should be a rapist, and if there is any question that the president might be a rapist, an answer to that question should be sought by any and all means available.
One path to such an answer would be a criminal investigation and trial in New York, though the statute of limitations is a likely obstacle. Another, perhaps more fruitful avenue, would be impeachment in the House. Let Trump’s accuser and other pertinent witnesses testify under oath. Let Trump defend himself under oath also.
But do NOT sweep it under the rug.
I believe that the majority of us are outraged and sick over the behavior of this "president". We are victims forced to pay attention to him on a daily basis, with no means of defending ourselves from him. There appear to be no laws that can stop him. He lies with impunity and is quoted verbatim by the press. He has center stage day in and day out and there is no real attempt to silence him. Now we are forced to watch him make a fool of America on the international stage with zero respect or humility. Yes, we have given up because there is nothing we seem to be able to do until we can vote him out.
Wow, what a sober and sobering wake-up call. Thank you, Charles Blow, for seeing and speaking the truth we need to hear. Who will respond???
1
Mr. Blow, I picture you standing in the street YELLING into the void. This is just one of many powerful pieces you have written since Mr. Trump was elected.
I feel sometimes helpless and yes even sometimes numb, g-d help me, to all the evil. Our society keeps reaching new lows.
I write letters, I make phone calls. I march, I donate, I stay very informed ( some would say obsessively so). That helps fend off the helplessness. BUT I have a life, I have a family, I must soldier on in my little world to enjoy this one life I have.
Will this evil, which is spreading all over the world take over? Will the “bad guys” win?
We mobilized and threw some of the bums out in the midterms. We must keep mobilizing, we MUST vote and get everyone we know to vote. And at this moment our Democratic Leaders must be VERY BRAVE and start an Impeachment Inquiry NOW into Trump and all he had perpetrated on us!
I am a student of American History and have been revisiting the era of Reconstruction lately. I see now a clear straight line from then to now. The greed, the unabashed prejudice, the imperfections of humans, that is who we are. Democracy has always been an ideal. We like to think we Americans have achieved that ideal. I hear all the time “ this is not who we are”. But I don’t believe that any more. Right now in this lifetime this IS who we are, who we continue to be!
We have very high ideals, so we need to rise above ourselves and make our beautiful vision of Democracy real.
3
I call my senators and congressperson often. One comment I make on each occasion is that the 'issue of the moment' is NOT NORMAL and that my representatives should show APPROPRIATE INDIGNATION. We are slipping deeper and deeper into the quagmire. The pot with the frog is getting hotter and hotter.
This president has mind spurs...and it is VERY contagious. The upcoming presidential election can't happen fast enough. My fear is that even that is too late, that we are boiled. The rapist is a symptom, not cause of our illness.
1
By his own admission, Trump is a serial, sexual predator. He is one more name on a long list that includes the likes of Harvey Weinstein, James Rosen, James Franco, Tavis Smiley, Mario Batali, Matt Lauer, and numerous others. Donald Trump needs to be held accountable for his actions. He may not care about common human decency, but he is not above the law.
I just said to my son before I read this piece that America is descending into a collective illness. Something is wrong, plain and simple.
Who are you? Where is your moral outrage to the many things going on with your “she’s not my type” president (so that implies he would sexually assault other types)? And what is up with the border situation with children in deplorable detention camps? Is greed, and the almighty dollar, and your roaring economy trumping everything else?
I am sickened.
"Carroll’s allegation fits the behaviors that have been established or alleged."
With the exception of actual penetration, her allegation also fits the behavior described by Trump himself on the Access Hollywood tape where he admitted that he couldn't help himself when it comes to kissing and grabbing private parts.
No. Trump isn't a rapist. Misogynist and narcissist? Sure. Rape is a whole other matter and shouldn't be bandied about with the ease Mr. Blow does. Moreover, I don't get the liberal desire to check one's disbelief and embrace gullibility to the point of irrationality, unless it's because these fanciful stories fit a predetermined agenda. Ms. Carroll's story doesn't pass even a basic smell test. She waited 20 years and a presidential election to allege that Trump violently raped her in a dressing room while she was consensually changing in front of him. Right. And the fact that she further alleges sexual assault by a veritable who's who of straight white men raises no alarm bells? Do we not remember the hoaxes Jussie Smollett and Stormy Daniels (she fully recanted) perpetrated not that long ago that liberals embraced despite similar warnings? Mr. Blues Trump hatred seems to have him taking leave of basic logic and common sense.
3
Enough already. America is tired,weary of the accusation parade. No witnesses, no rape but lots of 'lemme tell ya how bad that was' (a thousand years ago). Are we surprised at this? No. But to drag it out now has a fatiguing boomerang effect, and no one cares about a long ago innocuous dressing room encounter. Our culture has sexually coarsened to that degree. Just think of the lineup if Pres. John F Kennedy had been in the same time and place as we are today. What airtime that would be. Yeah, Mr. Blow, give it up. The dressing room interests YOU more than us.
4
If anyone believes this woman they should lease from my a bridge over the San Francisco Bay. Favorable terms I promise.
4
Yes, he is a rapist.
Anyone here who has had experience with taking care of women, survivors of sexual assault in any form or kind, you would notice the details of Carrroll's account.
I've heard a similar story hundreds of times... the way it is written, the snatched details, the disbelief, in denial of the violence, the shame... this is a very valid account.
And that is not one, but 22 women... do you realize how much guts it takes to come out in public and say this?
Knowing your own account, your character, your physical appearance, your judgement... every thing would on the chopping block of public scrutiny... and still they do it.
Especially, when the details are so specific, when close friends corroborate an account?
I had a colleague who had charges of sexual harassment for years. It all boiled down to forceful sexual predatory behavior where he used blackmail as well. When I saw details of investigation and his deposition, he said exactly these words, "Well, I don't want to be rude but you know, she's just not my type!"
Counselor said: so do you mind telling us, just what is your type, for sexual harassment and molestation?
The havoc, such men, can wreck.
Mr Blow, I agree.... there should be mass protests but majority US public at this point is like a (after 2.5 years of nastiness, misogyny, racism and lies) violently abused, badly beaten, harassed victim... whose self-worth and courage is in a ditch.
2
We aren't sleepwalking Mr. Blow, we are living in a nightmare desperately looking for a way to make it stop while 40% of our fellow citizens applaud the bogey man in charge along with a his staggering ignorance, vile racism , dangerous misogyny. So that is why many of us see no other way out of our terrifying situation than 2020.
1
Yes, in his life he has at minimum tried to rape women.
He is also a philanderer, a failed businessman, a failed president, a danger to American citizens and to the World.
His worst sin is his destruction of normal, intellectually based discussion and debate by lying over 11,000 lies over his two and half years of his presidency.
Worse than Trump are those people who support his debauched presidency and his projection of superficiality as a mode of policy making.
1
While I cannot judge this accusation, men like Trump think they can do anything. It is the nature of being a psychopath.
Yep, sure sounds that way.
Charles, I believe you were one of the most powerful voices (starting over two years ago) warning us to not let "Tump fatigue" get the best of us. You warned us that Trump would simply blitzkrieg America with one mind-blowing depravity after another - until we were all simply numb to the accumulated weight of Trump's utter odiousness as a human being.
And you were right. And you're right now to exert all your rhetorical powers to try to get us to shake off this Trump stupor and look right into the face of Trump's titanic vulgarity.
Yes, Democrats are afraid to impeach him. Their institutional paralysis is already a craven capitulation to Trump's overtly fascist abuses of Executive Branch power.
This reticence is a huge mistake, tactically, morally and constitutionally. By all historical measures of presidential behavior, Trump is an egregious liar, a cheat, a con man, a bully, a bigot, a terrifying ignoramus and a vulgarian of the First Degree. And all that is indelibly "on the record" before we even consider his crimes so delicately documented by Mr. Mueller.
If these are not "high crimes and misdemeanors" - than what are? Are we waiting for Trump to shoot that man on Fifth Avenue on live TV before we act?
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - it's a duck! And in our Constitutional republic, Trump should be (politically-speaking) a dead duck.
To paraphrase the words of Joseph Welch to Joe McCarthy, "America, have you no sense of decency?"
2
While I cannot judge this accusation, men like Trump think they can do anything. It is the nature of being a psychopath.
It is so bizarre when a Republican senator like Mike Azinger can post an op-ed essay titled “The Shame of LGBTQ Pride” where he laments that “sexual deviancy is going mainstream” and not note the irony of the Republican Party being a supporter of real sexual deviancy by continuing to embrace an accused rapist and known sexual predator: the current President of the United States!
Perhaps we can prove to the world that Donald Trump is not America's type.
1
Trump is trump as we are watching his life unfolds from The access Hollywood tape .
After the tape came out trump won presidency and Billy Bush lost his job.
Another three years have passed another rape accusation surfaced and we hear the same disgusting line by trump.
But Charles what is happening to this Country?
His supporters remains unmoved like my next door with two teenage daughters, why they are not thoroughly disgusted with this lying con man they voted for ?
1
The M.O. Trump used -- pushing E. Jean against a wall -- was mentioned by other victims.
Imagine being pinned against a wall by him. Touched and groped and grabbed. The size of him. The smell of him. The horror of his body parts, fluids, etc.
It all boils down to one fact: Women who have been assaulted against their will, have learned to keep their mouths shut. Not from their own embarrassment but because of the reactions of others. Tell the story to a man and he insinuates that you encouraged it. Tell it to another woman and she shrugs it off with a catty remark. I am willing to bet there are hundreds if not thousands of women who still have not come forward. Why speak about it to salivating public?
1
As this story was breaking, I was watching the documentary, Lorena on Amazon...What we have in fact is John Wayne Bobbit as President of the United States.
Why is it that all the voices in this comment stream that shrug off the accusations, or excuse them, or simply say we have bigger problems, are men? With the exception of the author, of course. All the voices that get it are women. Yes we have all stopped listening to the constant screaming, and the Trump did what now culture we now live in. But women understand that sometimes we trust men, we are flattered by them, we put ourselves in situations that in hindsight we tell ourselves we should have seen coming. We get that a man overpowering us is sexual violence not some creepy kind of foreplay. Sorry but if you are not female - again apologies to Mr. Blow - you have no idea how this woman felt or what an incredible violation this was. Stop acting as though you do. This was rape whether it was in a Bergdorf's dressing room or in someone's apartment. We deserve better and Donald Trump, who has never been held accountable for anything, needs to be held accountable. Twenty plus women do not make baseless accusations, each of which sounds eerily similar, because they hate the president. The same is true for Brett Kavanaugh. Admitting to yourself and the world that you were raped is not a political exercise it's a terribly painful, gut wrenching moment that demands respect and for others to listen. I will get off the soap box now.
what? you don't see how can blame Trump?
this is another slap in the face to women assaulted by him. The pain and memory of assault stays with women all their lives.
Read something beyond naval gazing literature.
pick up Martha Nussbaum
get educated on the mess that is left behind
after assault and rape. for the women. for their children. your account sickens me.
I am confident that many of the men who are now hearing these sorts of rape and misconduct accusations have no idea that what they did was wrong because, for them, women are like Kleenex -- grab em, use em, throw em away.
Great writing. But Bill Clinton did the same. Perhaps there was more drama about those revelations going public - I wasn't old enough to really know or follow - but his "penetrations", according to his accuser, Juanita Boraddrick were certainly full on. That is the conversation. Is rape real because it maybe 50% or 100% penetration or maybe just unwanted fingering. Sickening indeed. But, unfortunately, not unique to Trump. Real change.
I was talking about Trump with a good friend on the phone today, we were discussing if the Republicans will destroy Mueller, a decorated Marine and a man of integrity, to protect Trump. I mentioned this rape accusation, my friend said Trump is the personification of corruption and nasty populism. I said what does this say about a significant part of the American people? Anything no matter how criminal is OK because he’s “their” guy!! We both agreed the next time any born again Christian brings up their faith to us, we are shutting that person down hard. I have NO respect for anyone who supports such a lying fraud for president!! Let’s not ever forget what the Republican Party has foisted on the American people, and the world at large!!
3
The group of voters who got us into this mess are multiple fractions:
Beyond help are card carrying Trumpists, who support the ogre because it feeds their fragile pathetic egos. Racist, of average income and below average intelligence and education. Look at those photos from the rallies with folks decked out in paraphernalia as if they had full body tattoos. Can’t reach them.
Also beyond help are the so called Christians, who flog to the church of used cars salesmen and snake oil deliverance and believe the ogre is an instrument of divine will. They read the bible for God knows what reason, but not for learning about Christian values as commanded by Jesus Christ - the one who actually existed and asked to live by compassion, you know who I mean - right?
Dangerous and underreported are the greedy opportunists, well educated, good income, totally selfish, mostly racists, too. They often keep their Trump voting hidden and will ruin our society no matter who is in charge; but are not beyond reach. They might find someone on the Dem side they like.
There are the law and order crews, men in uniform who vote R without thinking or knowing why, except that Dems are commies. They are the ones I’m most ashamed of (being a veteran myself). Gabbard might be able to reach some of them. #Tulsi2020
Last, there are the one that should be talked to - Rs, often above 60, who just assume Ds are bad because they are told so by Fox and hey, the country is still here.We need to win them.
Ms. Carroll claims she still has the dress and stated there may be Trump's DNA on it.
Why did she say that? Any ideas? She said she would not have the dress tested for the presence or quality of genetic material because it would be an insult to the women being raped at our southern border.
Either SHE is a loon or she is walking it back.
If SHE does not have the dress tested, then SHE is part of the reason St. Gillibrand and Spartacus, who were quick to jump to the camera to kick Al Franken out of the Senate, now merely shrug their impressive shoulders over this issue.
#MeToo is blowing itself up.
Under the 8-0 SCOTUS ruling in Jones v Clinton, a president is NOT immune from civil suit for acts committed before becoming president.
That means Trump, like Clinton, would be deposed and have to give a CLEAN DNA sample. No choice.
Trump has said it never happened. He never met her.
If Carroll has DNA to prove otherwise it could lead to a charge of perjury. And it could lead to a campaign where the choice is between a Democrat and a proven racist.
Time to get off the "thoughts and prayers" high horse. If this woman has the strength to be photographed in the rape dress for the cover of NY Magazine, she should have the strength to have it DNA tested. Or, recant her claim of DNA evidence on the dress.
C'mon, Jean, those women at the border are counting on you.
Short answer, yes.
1
Now, all calculations are political, not moral.
Donald J. Trump has demonstrated many, many times his disregard for the rule of law and the norms of modern social behavior. Appeals to conscience or sense of right and wrong are as pointless as, to recall the familiar joke, "trying to teach a pig to sing - it wastes your time and annoys the pig".
The loyal Republicans have circled the wagons around him, hoping to prop up Trump's deception for one more election cycle. They all have their personal agendas: perhaps a well-paying job with pension and medical benefits, fulfillment of the religious fanatic's fever-dream, a path to power for the neo-Nazi or white supremacist, or a thumb-in-your-eye expression of anger by a poor, uneducated white 'dead-ender'. Whatever the reason they are wedded to Trump for better or worse.
Removing Trump from office now involves the same procedure as for any other Republican president: remind the voters of the terrible consequences of the Republican control of the government; explain the benefits of the Democratic plans for future prosperity and the undoing of all the wrongs done by the 'Most Corrupt Administration in American History'; and attack the character of the incumbent Republican.
The character attack has been simmering in background but now needs to come to the foreground, in the voters' consciousness every day.
Televised hearings on everything from emoluments to rape, are an excellent way to do this.
1
I agree on all fronts, Charles. But... I don't think we're in a stupor. I think we all feel paralyzed. Trump has magically altered the laws of Cause and Effect. He's wrenched the gears of morality again and again, and the machine keeps rumbling along. So your article, while concise and powerful, is yet another echo reverberating around the chamber of outrage. We're all talking about our disgust for Trump. We're all reading articles like yours. Many of us are writing articles like yours. To ourselves, we confirm that there is indeed a moral majority who still grasps and expects decency. And that's important, especially for youngsters. But beyond voting in the coming election, what else can we do? I suppose we can keep writing, yelling, protesting, gathering, and staying connected to the Good in us as much as possible, in hopes that our striving for decency serves as a rudder, invisible beneath the choppy water, but nonetheless keeping us headed towards a more sane and compassionate future.
1
The Walter Cronkite Republican observes that now we know what happens we stay home and not vote because we thought the outcome was obvious, or we were beguiled by the misinformation propagated by unedited social media algorithms and propaganda networks barking a party line masquerading as news outlets.
1
@Gregory West One hopes most who didn't vote (or, worse, voted and made NO CHOICE for president!) have learned that lesson. VOTE!
1
We have elected a crook to the US presidency. This is the issue. And the only reasonable remedy is to make sure that he does not get another term. I heard this morning on The Daily that Ms. Carroll is afraid that this episode is likely to help him get elected. And as sad, paradoxical and outrageous as this sounds, I have no doubt seeing that this is in fact how low we have fallen as a nation. Trump is the living symbol of this degradation. But he is not the cause. As much as Hitler was not the cause of Nazism and Mussolini of fascism. The worst dictators were brought to power by the will of the people. The new fascists here and in Europe are now doing the same. Ignorance and lack of education is the main culprit. Ignorance and lack of education lead people that suffer from the abuses of society to turn to the strong men that fan the flames of fear and anger while showing their muscles. Assaulting women as their legitimate prey is part of this act. Fighting ignorance and promoting education across larger segments of the population is the only remedy for these accidents of history.
5
He is guilty of raping America. And will rape the world if not stopped. Those not punished continue their behavior.
How did those votes for the Green and Libertarian Parties work out in 2016? We must all vote for the Democratic candidate -- no matter what. We have seen the alternative and we are being raped everyday. This will be binary — future or no future.
3
Question: you have two candidates. One is a liar, rapist and all around despicable, but you are confident he will crry out all the policies and changes you want. The other will adopt all kinds of policies to which you are strongly opposed, but has a personal life that is exemplary and above reproach. Who do you vote for? It's a bad choice, but most of us will chose the candidate who will adopt the policies we want.
We have two examples: Bill Clinton who did abuse women using his office as Governor of Arkansas and then President (enabled by Hillary who shamed accusers and supported guilty Bill). And our current president, who seems to have been a habitual abuser. Have you seen any Democrats who denounced Clinton and voted for Republicans instead because of Clinton's sad history of abuse? No, they correctly perceived that Clinton would effect policies and changes they agreed with so they voted for him. I don't at all agree with Trump and believe he is a disastrous president. But it is not hard for me to understand that people who like Trump's policies will vote for him even though they know is a rapist, racist and embarrassing buffoon.
Policy and agenda are more important than unsavory or even individual criminal acts. The first question always is: where will this candidate lead my government and my country. Is this where I want to go. If so, I'll probably vote for a scoundrel.
Dem's: please focus on policy, not Trump's many sins.
1
How very sad for America. Charles M. Blow writes with such clarity and anger in the face of your national leader flouting the laws and morals and traditions of decency that we all came to associate with the United States of America. Please pray that your citizens can be saved from this seeming landslide of people not standing up for truth and goodness.
2
I am so with you, Charles. I find this president abhorrent, his behavior indefensible. Sixteen women are not lying, Trump is and does.
He should never been near the Oval Office. But beyond that, why do so many Republicans and voters overlook his bad behavior? Do they really think he’s in their corner? Hardly. Donald is a malignant narcissist....he only uses people to serve himself. Ask those 16 women.
1
This allegation, if true, is the most egregious offense. Post allegation E. Jean Carroll has given exclusive interviews.
She told anchor Lawrence O’Donnell, “I wish I had said to him I’ll tell you my age if you show me your tax returns.” (in 95-96) via MSNBC on YouTube.
She told Anderson Copper on CNN. "I think most people think rape is sexy!" Cooper "let's take a short break" via YouTube
Additionally:
Law and Order SVU (season 13 episode 11) Theater Tricks. Includes a Bergdorf Goodman rape fantasy scene. via transcript (and show video snippet on Twitter).
HIDEOUS MEN IN NYC WALKING TOUR via Meetup web site.
We meet the FIRST and THIRD SUNDAY of EVERY MONTH! 4pm! In front of Bergdorf's 58th Street Entrance!!
When the accused is automatically assumed guilty, it is required we review the preponderance of evidence.
1
And no one invited to meet this president need say 'yes'.
I don't really believe in any sort of biblical good and evil -- or at last I didn't. After reading about children being RETURNED to the Clint Concentration Camp and seeing the photo of the drowned man and his child who were turned away at the border and watching E. Jean Carroll talk about how Trump told her she is "so old" and then raped her, I am not so sure. I feel we are years beyond the breaking point and yet nobody (except those brave Wayfair employees) is out in the streets. Impeachment is a moral imperative at this point and so are massive, ongoing protests and strikes.
1
There is a helplessness and a sense of futility with this president that will always be present while he is. If we can get used to mass murders as everyday occurrences, why not be numb to a POTUS who is a rapist? A rapist who wants women punished for having abortions.
Why care about children at the border that are treated cruelly based on his policies? Ironically the party that backs him unquestioningly calls itself "Pro-life" and the "party of family values." The irony is well, ironic. As frightening as Trump's lawlessness and immorality are the citizens of this country who continue to support him, who state they are not really bothered by his lies because he "tells it like it is." What is to be done about this cognitive dissonance that has affected 1/2 of our country?
We are better than this. We are better than Donald Trump and his criminal family. That we have to make a case for being better than this is beyond sad.
It is on our politicians to remove this cancer from our country. I am afraid that they are not up to the task. Trump and his "D" team have more havoc to wreak. I hope we survive these next few years. I am not sure we will.
3
The natural corollary to "she's not my type" is "but if she was then I would have sexually assaulted her". Perhaps someone ought to ask the President what would have happened if she were his 'type'.
1
Charles, Trump is being supported and protected by the following groups; The Republicans, corrupted by greed power and money. The evangelicals, who believe Trump is blessed and appointed by God, a reincarnated King Cyrus. By racists who hate anyone who does not look like them. Truly this is an evil alliance that is determined to support Trump to advance their agendas regardless of what Trump has done in the past, or what he will do in the future. This country will never return to what it was, even if Trump loses in 2020. Many people have accepted behaviors that were once considered unethical, immoral and illegal. The proverbial genie is out of the bottle now and cannot be put back in.
In response to the Op-Ed’s headline: Yes.
1
Bluntly stated and appropriately so. There is credible evidence that our President is a rapist, yet we carry on -- so very pleased about the "lowest unemployment rate in the history of our nation," and "the greatest economy ever," that even if remotely true, he can claim little or even no credit. How much could that matter if we have a rapist as President? "Not my type" is not in any way a denial; it is an admission -- the sort of declaration against interest that makes it weighted with truth. Don't look away, America. Stare at ourselves in the full-length mirror and see fully what we've become. Then push - hard - on our government representatives, and tell them that he must go.
2
Should we at least have a debate about whether or not we think this woman is Trump's type or not to establish the truth? Sorry my sarcasm is getting pathetically vile.
You are hardly alone on the edge of despair. Just in the last 24 hours, how many people did this vile creature insult, attack or threaten? I have lost count. We wonder who can take this monster on in the next election. The answer, I suspect, is potentially any of them. I would like to think there is a rising simple disgust and recognition of the man’s fraudulence which will lead to a well earned downfall. Anything less is unthinkable.
Clinton got away with the same kinds of things as his party sat on it and did nothing too.
1
Mr. Blow I'm afraid even you have underestimated the depravity of our CiC. He's not just a rapist - he's a serial rapist - a man capable of telling the most bold- faced lies with a straight face, a man who can see the lifeless bodies of a father and his two year old daughter lying face down in the Rio Bravo mud and claim it's has nothing to do with him or his government, a man who thinks he's a "stable genius" and has never, ever made a bad investment.
I fear for the soul of my country for I'm sure that it's lost.
The president of the United States demeans the office in every possible way and yet 90% of the party of Lincoln support him.
That is just sickening.
Why would anyone be surprised by the actions of this excressence in human form?
The way one reacts to anything is the way one reacts to EVERYTHING.
When I see his face, I am reminded, always, of this quotation from A Moveable Feast: Hemingway on Wyndam Lewis:
“I do not think I have ever seen a nastier-looking man... Under the black hat, when I had first seen them, the eyes had been those of an unsuccessful rapist."
Trump is doing us a service. In his own disgusting manor as he travels through his presidency, he is pointing out in lurid details many if not most of the problems we need to work on, from the empty cultural and damaged moral, to the ethically diseased, to the lacking democracy and our relationships with the rest of the world and ultimately the planet itself. He is showing us all the work we need to do. Our disgust of his brutal uncaring nature reflects on everything that put him in office that we must change. Let’s use this disaster to our advantage. Let’s plan our improvements while we have our disgust readily before us.
1
Another thoughtful article by Mr. Blow. It both saddens and enrages me that our country has gotten to the point that we tolerate all sorts of egregious behavior from Trump. He next will "get away with" a private meeting with Putin, again! Unheard of before.
Serial predator is just another way to describe this mendacious and unqualified bully. He weasels out of all accountability but not playing by any rules and he gets away with it -or rewarded for it. What a hideous state of affairs.
You ask us to open our eyes, but each time we do we get jabbed in our hearts.
It all hurts just too much.
Make Trump go away.
I feel I can do nothing.
He has stolen too much from me, from us.
1
What is "his type"? The answer would appear to be obvious: A perfect 10, with an I.Q. of -0.10!
If not an actual rapist, Trump is certainly an individual who is harassed, demeaned, and treated women inappropriately.
Spot on, Mr. Blow. The U.S. is becoming a nation of boiled frogs. It sickens and terrifies me that people keep "looking for the good" in all this evil. A nation that goes after Joe Biden for hugging women (not that it isn't patriarchal and inappropriate) but is completely blasé about a POTUS who has, admittedly and repeatedly, engaged in repugnant behaviour toward women and almost any group you can name except powerful white men.
Thank you for continuing to speak out.
Susan McCreight
2
I wish Ivana would speak out.
2
At least three times, Trump has defended himself from sexual assault accusations by insulting the woman's appearance.
And his fans laugh appreciatively.
"Not pretty enough to rape" is the argument of a monster; an entitled, sexist, brat who's gotten away with harassing women his entire life, due to his wealth and our culture of toxic masculinity.
I am disgusted with the media's mild coverage of his crimes.
3
Yes. We knew that before this allegation. The sick truth is we live in a misogynist country so far too many simply don’t care.
1
Is Trump a rapist?
Yes he is.
So was JFK, and Bill Clinton. And a great many others with a wide range of ethical principles in the rest of their lives. Powerful men get off on power.
So if this is the top issue on which we choose to judge him, we're picking the wrong issue.
Perhaps we are on the way to a society in which it's no longer OK for "boys to be boys." Neither Democrats nor Republicans are there yet. On the other features of Trump's personality, however, the differences are pretty stark.
It is perfectly understandable that rape victims do not come forward. They are rarely believed and the reporting process is often demeaning. There is no amount of hand wringing that will change this. Trump has always gotten away with his particular form of criminality. His supporters admire it, as proven by their loyalty no matter what he does.
This situation should not blind us to what good there is in the world. Most people strive to be honorable and caring. They take care of their families and their communities. They would not walk across the street to spit on Trump: he is a national disgrace.
As your last paragraph suggests, we are all, as citizens, victims of a crime that is still under way; we are variously frozen in fear or fighting tooth and claw; we are helpless, hoping we survive and just wanting it to be over. The man is a rapist on a universal scale.
1
I am sure that the women who have come forward to tell their stories of rape and/or attempted rape are simply the tip of the iceberg. These are women who have the self confidence to make their stories public and withstand Trump’s denials and taunts.
Throughout his 73 years I’m sure he has raped or attempted to rape minions of poor and powerless women who he employed to cook and clean at his Trump Tower apartment, Mar-a-Largo retreat and golf clubs. These women would be easy prey who need their jobs to feed their families and pay their bills. These women are too poor to pay a lawyer and bring charges against the boss.
There is no doubt in my mind that Trump is a sexual predator.
1
The good old boy strikes again, every female assault by Trump the Predator endears him to gun toting America.This is the Trump Base which elected him to the Presidency.
1
Trump once said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and nothing would happen to him. So far I see no reason to doubt it.
1
Whether or not Trump is a rapist is a matter for the courts. The questions that really matters are:
How can a person accused credibly for sexual assaults many times get away with "She's not my type". And how can a similar person be appointed to the Supreme Court?
It can, because these abhorrent people are getting full cover by the GOP, the DOJ and Fox State Television.
America has become a banana republic under Trump and the GOP, the party of "law and order". The irony of it all is killing me.
@CharlesBlow
You are sickened by a country doing nothing about the Evil One in the WH and his accomplices & enablers there and in Congress and the House.
I think that what looks like flat-out malaise is more often a huge subset of people screaming constantly in their minds because they don’t know what else to do about it beyond continuing to pay attention, continuing to write to their own—and not their own— congresspeople and representatives, boycotting power that supports the evil, and voting.
Charles, tell me what to do. Tell the “us” in that huge subset what to do.
1
Apparently, acquiescence to (or support of) evil is a small price to pay in exchange for "owning the libs."
I am also guilty of being in a stupor from the onslaught of horror produced by this man. Our very future is threatened by this and yet no one in Washington is apparently able or willing to do anything about it. I always considered Trump to be a liar, a cheater and an immoral slug but I am stunned at the depths to which he is willing to drop. My biggest concern is what this teaches our children -- how in the world do you explain it to a child when you have no clue yourself?
There is NO DOUBT in my mind that this man is a sexual predator. If you have any doubt, go back and listen to his interview on Howard Stern when he gleefully recounts his ability to walk into the girls dressing room at his beauty pageants while they are changing-naked...how young were those young women?To think that a woman would make up this story is ludicrous. Having been a victim myself, it is a humiliating, gross thing and YES, you want to keep it a secret because you feel shame...I hope that is changing.
Mr. Blow,
I would suggest that you ask for the extensive investigating tools available to you through the NYT to allow you to seek out more concrete evidence.
Your article does not contain enough to meet a standard that would be heard in a court of law.
Your article is a waste of time. Go do some real work and get back to us.
Trump's comments are of a par with his mentor Vladimir Putin's dismissal of assassinated Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
Yes. Yes yes and yes-he is a rapist and all that you mention. A group of people in Kalispell Montana have been carrying signs by the Main Street all year protesting Trump. They are out in the rain and snow and heat. What they do is to me similar to your columns-give us a much needed reminder that this situation is not only not normal but dire.
Doesn’t Trump approach every transaction as a rapist would? He wants what he wants, and if the other doesn’t comply he threatens to no end. Even when it’s “consensual” (contractual) he goes back in his word and “stiffs” the other person. Misogynist? Of course! But he feels that way about everyone that doesn’t bow to him, and has proven innumerable times that he never forgets a grudge. What an offensive excuse for a human being.
1
It is impossible to imagine that Trump is not a rapist. It is also very hard to believe that he is not a racist, misogynist, liar, cheat and promoter of hate and division. That is simply what Trump is. None of it is pretty and for me at least none of it is acceptable in of any public official, let alone the now discredited office of president.
But that is what Trump has always been and what he was when he was sort of elected. That is what he has been during his entire time in office and yet over 40% of American support him. That is where the problem lies in my opinion. Not in Trump being a degraded excuse of a man but in the insane support he commands from the lowest information segment of the US population.
The US is not the country that I was led to believe it was and I doubt that it can ever earn back my trust, much less my allegiance.
Let's give her the chance to make her case.
Charge Trump with rape and put her on the witness stand.
Her testimony, and her credibility won't survive cross-examination.
1
Let's cut to the quick.
Some selfish people assumed that their group would always be in charge and were angry at President Obama for leveling the playing field for people different from themselves. But they can't admit it out loud.
That these same selfish people would support the depravity of Donald Trump, rapist, serial liar, cheater, criminal, and traitor shows just how determined they were to regain their previous status.
The abused women, the abused children, the abused immigrants, the abused workers, the abused veterans, and the abused allies are acceptable casualties to the most selfish people ever to exist on this planet.
1
As usual, you are right on target. How do we get rid of this guy? And when???
1
Trump has bullied America into a callused state of being concerning his sexual attacks on women. He believes he is above the law and sees women as property, without worth and only having worth if they are "his type".
Again I state, the GOP Frankenstein (Trump) is loose in the village and no one dare try to contain him lest he turn on them and cast them into the castle's watery dungeon. Only the bravest and most resolute of constitutional defenders can challenge him and break his reign of depravity. Who will it be? Who among you Republican Senators will push the scale of critical mass toward shining decency and away from the vulgar and profane? We the American people have had more than we can bear but we need the Senate to get this monster out of office. Admit it, Senate. You want him gone, too.
Once again you have gotten to the core of the malaise that has taken over America. Cruelty and inhumanity, as well as misogyny, are unfortunately nothing new. What's new is the depth of daily degradation and depravity that Trump shows us, gleefully. How anyone can support this man is a mystery, unless there is a lot more darkness in his supporters than we can imagine. That is the concern. If the Christian right, and Republicans in general turn a blind eye to such deplorable actions, continually, we're lost as a country.Trump is the antithesis of everything that America has stood for. Democrats need to take action, and rid this country of this menace.
Please tell Mr. Baquet to refer to the accusation of Ms. Carroll, not as "Assault" but as to what she described; RAPE. Mr. Trump, once again, is proving his prediction that he could "kill a person on 5th Avenue and get away with it". He raped this woman, from the statements made by her. The President of the United States of America is an accused Rapist.
Rape is about power. Trump is insecure and in need of self-assurance and power, always. His profile fits a Rapist profile, almost to a tee. An unfulfilled narcissist seeking self-assured power.
He's worse. He thinks the women he assaults should be honored. Then dismissed.
It is highly likely that he is a rapist. If there were one accusation with no history, maybe 50%/50% odds. With dozens of credible accusations, his admitting sexual assault on Access Hollywood, and his history of lying, the odds are more like 99.9%. He should be tried on these charges as well as so many others, and spend the rest of his life in jail.
1
Trump is clearly a rapist in every sense of the word.
When the Access Hollywood tape came to light, the sensible reaction, I thought, would be widespread outrage leading Trump to withdraw his candidacy. But the reaction was rather the opposite -- the moment when my personal sense of alarm kicked into overdrive. No matter the extent of Trump's crimes, the greater terror lies arises because of those who view his propensity toward sexual assault as but one facet of his charisma.
The faces of the women in my family come to mind. Not in seeing them as vulnerable, not trying to imagine the extent they surely empathize with Trump's accusers. I think instead of their undying adoration for the man.
It seems a kind of self-loathing, a self-destructive impulse -- how can any woman with any sense of self-respect remain a Trump supporter? I can't begin to understand, but there they are, the niece, the sister-in-law, a perpetual Facebook celebration of Trump's infallibility.
As I write, the Democrats are debating in the background -- intelligent, articulate. But what do these qualities matter to the Trump faithful? It's complete madness we're up against. A sickness that will remain among us long after Trump, and Melania, depart.
1
To identify Carroll as "an advice columnist" does her a huge injustice--for decades, she has been reporting and researching journalism that has appeared in high-profile publications and been read by millions of people. Her honesty and accuracy have never been challenged. When it comes to telling the truth, she is battle-tested.
It really broke my heart to hear Ms. Carroll say on the Daily that she didn't go public during the election because she thought the allegation might help him. Indeed what she described matched exactly to what Trump bragged to Billy Bush that he did to women. And it did help him. Millions of people knew that he bragged about doing exactly this and pulled the lever for him.
3
One man COULD make the difference but he won't because all that matters to him is power. Trump could rape and murder a child in the middle of Lafayette Park and this man still wouldn't act.
And because he won't act and others are afraid of him, Trump continually gets away with an ever-escalating series of crimes and criminal obstruction.
This man is a liar, a hypocrite, a bigot and totally in the pocket of corporations, especially the fossil fuel companies. He is vicious, clever, totally unprincipled, and practiced at the art of claiming the moral high ground when it's 180 degrees from what he said yesterday.
No, his name is not Donald Trump. It's Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who, because he allows Trump to get away with this, is actually the most dangerous man in America.
And the ONE person who has the real power to undermine both of them, through beginning thorough impeachment investigations starting that have a long way to go before Articles of Impeachment can be written, won't, counting hope against hope that 2020 will "fix" everything...instead of that being "Plan B". And that person is...Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
She's making the Democrats appear weak, spineless and indecisive, playing her own insider power-play while ignoring the rising fury and frustration of the Democratic, Liberal, and Progressive base, setting up yet another disappointing loss next year--but she'll hang on to HER power!
9
"I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed." --Jonathan Swift
We are upset that the Senate accepts Trump as he is to get their evil agenda passed, and their racist, misogynist judges confirmed.
We can only vote against these rotten senators if it is in our control.
To all the people who have Republican and Trump supporters in your lives - what are you saying to those people? What do you say to the people who didn't vote at all? Are you as complacent as the GOP Senators? Trump supporters and sitter-outers need to feel ashamed.
The next election is in your hands. You have a job to do.
6
I agree that if Trump assaulted this woman, he should not be president. I share Blow’s outrage.
But tell us what can be done? Trump acknowledged assaulting women in the Billy Bush tape. He has said he would accept foreign intelligence to help his campaign.
I donate to his opponents. I vote for those who oppose his agenda. My Congressman and Senators are all Democrats.
I repeat: what are we supposed to do?
9
A catastrophe just as awful as Trump himself is the significant number of women among his supporters (including mothers, daughters, wives, grandmothers, and evangelicals) who positively glory in his rapist tendencies. What is the pathology at work here? What explains their obsequiousness, even excitement, when it comes to pseudo-macho criminality? I am at a loss and hope that some of these groupies can explain it to me.
3
Hear hear. Thank you for this.
6
I believe he should stand trial.
2
Trump is above the law...he demonstrates that every day.
3
Thank you. I work with victims of sexual abuse and every day in this presidency has been a nightmare to my clients- and myself- triggered by a predator on a daily basis. People are so ignorant. The man was caught admitting he abuses women and still he was elected. There is a reason he took out a giant ad calling for the death penalty of the Central Park 5- he does it all the time, accuse the innocent of what he himself has done.
4
No, Mr. Blow, nothing now matters that used to matter—not decency, not civility, not truth, not the rule of law, not our allies, not even common humanity.
With virtually every word, every action, this president reveals the depth and breadth of his moral void. He touts the value of money over that of human life. He lies with absolute impunity, saying anything, no matter how demonstrably false, to justify himself, his cruelty, his failures. He revels in his contempt for women who refuse sexual objectification. He glorifies his brazen contempt for the rule of law. He masquerades his cruelty as toughness, simultaneously blaming his own inhumanity on the black man who preceded him.
His utter depravity has deposed the ideals our country once stood for. And what is absolutely breathtaking is that some 40 percent of our fellow Americans cheer him on.
4
When I read accusations like these, I always ask myself what happen after he zips his pants up, did he say “ that wasn’t to bad or next time I see you in public we’ll pretend this never happen, or if you tell anybody about what just happen I will bury you.” Rape is about power, it’s about someone with a low self-esteem who picks victims that he can dominate. This is Trump’s ammo and I believe her
9
You're right in every way, but you're too easy on Trump. This is insane. How can close to half of America even let this treasonous criminal walk the streets, much less think he should remain President? Trump doesn't just think he's above the law, he knows he's above the law. And if you don't believe him, just ask William Barr. He'll tell you this: Obstruction of Justice? No problem! Collusion with a foreign power to rig the election? 10,000 lies and counting? Emoluments violations? Openly racist policies? Attacking the constitutional right to free speech and freedom of the press? Tearing children away from their parents? Openly supporting corruption, law-breaking, and nepotism? No problem! You're the President! Well, let's be clear Barr will say, these things are not a problem only if you're a Republican President. Everyone else should do life in prison for these outrages!
7
I am outraged. However there are too many issues out there. It is like a whack a mole game. The 2020 election is coming and will become a challenge for many citizens to vote. I urge my fellow Americans to do whatever you can to get out and vote. Offer to take friends or relatives to the poles. Be prepared to wait hours in line. This is the only way that we can keep this bully, racist, rapist, self absorbed man from serving 4 more years. We can’t depend upon Republicans to do the job and put a respectable man on the ballot.
3
The Republicans - especially those in Congress - are supporting a hideous person that tries to impersonate a President.
Trump and his supporters are nationally in the minority, so how is it that the minority tail is wagging the dog?
Every single one of the ten Democrats on stage last night vying for the Presidency is head and shoulders above the Current Occupant.
We must come out in unprecedented droves to get this imposter out of the White House.
4
I assume the title of this article is rhetorical, since Trump is on camera admitting that he uses his fame as an excuse to grab women’s privates. That he is still defended by 40% of the country is inexplicable. This must be what living in the 1850s was like, as the country careened toward civil war, utterly divided by two realities, each incomprehensible to the other. But, one side was right.
3
At the most basic level, I believe the women accusing Trump because he only tells lies and has made absurd provable lies about each of them. Trump cannot pass a lie detector test on any day of the week about anything in his past. The truth is repugnant to him.
4
My only comment on this sad story would be to cast a doubt on her narrative. It would be physically difficult to penetrate in these circumstances . She was standing fully clothed & she was also standing fully clothed. He pulled down her tights. He penetrated her in this position! Seems physically difficult if not impossible unless she herself participated in the act.
When a country names museums, airports, highways, schools, etc, for John F. Kennedy, who was a disgusting, blatant philanderer & even possibly complicit in the death of Marilyn Monroe while president, how can people get all riled up over allegations of Trump's behavior 23 yrs ago? Clinton's behavior in the Oval Office? Overlooked by many, even though DNA & Impeachment proved Monica's allegations true. Anytime there is a "he said, she said", there has to be proof, & even then, unfortunately, some people will excuse almost anything.
2
This is the new normal in Democratic politics. Find a disturbed, preferably delusional, person to haul out 20, 30 or 40 year old "memories" of something horrible they claim was done to them by a Republican politician, newsman or jurist. Make sure the allegations are vague and unprovable, which of course means they cannot be disproven either. Make sure the allegations are rendered during an especially fraught moment, designed to alter the outcome of an important public decision. Make sure all of the entirely predictable media allies are lined up in advance to provide a tsunamie of commentary, coverage and hot takes on the unprovable allegations. Blow daily oxygen onto the flames of (faux) outrage the allegations are intended to stoke by dropping new details to make the narrative seem organic, instead of obviously contrived. If the allegations are eventually shown to be untrue or completely and deliberately false, drop the matter entirely and move onto the next bit of manufactured nonsense. Do no fllowup reporting about the hoax or its authors. Admit no wrong doing by forwarding the false allegations in an attempt to slander or ruin the intended target. Pretend it's just " journalism." Rinse and repeat.
Isn't anyone the least bit ashamed of themselves for participating in this carnival of political idiocy?
I keep thinking we should be marching by tens of thousands in the streets. We should be yelling and protesting. What will be sufficient? Little hungry children torn from their asylum seeking parents? Numerous women stating that the president has raped or sexually groped them? What is wrong with us?
I am heartbroken for the children, the women, the parents.
3
Did he rape her? Does Carroll state explicitly that?
If she claims that, there should be a criminal investigation.
2
All twenty-two women should be invited by the DCCC to the first debate with President Trump.
The greatest revenge against Trump supporters will be when Gorsuch vots to uphold Roe v. Wade.
1
It's about time the self righteous MeToo movement diverts its attention to the lowest of lowest hanging fruit,the President of the United States. Quite how and why they remain seemingly oblivious and uninterested by his many documented unwanted and grubby encounters with women remains a complete mystery.
2
Nearly 5 million women took to the streets the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated. In Fairbanks they came out in 19 degrees below 0 weather, in LA 15 women marched in a cancer ward. We didn't need to be told that this man was a predator and a fraud. If you lived in New York City in the 80's, you knew what he was.
Well here we are. In the chaos of the daily assault of this administration, the crazy-making tweets, the lies, it seems like the voting booth is the only answer, cuz no one is listening to us or Christine Blasey Ford or E. Jean Carroll or Robert Mueller for that matter. Or maybe the courage of Carroll is changing that. Maybe we've reached a tipping point. Yes we should be in the streets everyday. But we have lives and jobs and obligations. Where we need to show up in force is the voting booth. And before that, we need to support any and all opposition to him.
2
Trump would never consider his treatment of women as rape. He believes they want him to force himself on them. He probably grew up with that notion. If you are self centered, egotistical and aggressive, you will likely think that you can treat women any way you want. Didn't he say...and they let you do it. I think this is just another women who found his advances intolerable but said nothing. In those days saying nothing was perceived as being safer.
3
Trump already admitted to grabbing (sexually assaulting) women, what difference does it make if he raped them as well to his rabid base of supporters, including so called Evangelical Christians. Like he said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose one supporter.
Bad people are going to do bad things, it's up to good people, people in power to stop them. Good people who do the right things, because their the right thing, not sit on their hands keeping their 'powder dry' for some political calculation. I sure wish there was a Democrat with the power and will to start the political Impeachment process. I guess we'll have to keep waiting.
2
@Mike It almost seems like Pelosi wants to take her month off, rather than start the impeachment inquiry we, as a country, MUST HAVE.
4
The answer to the question implored in the title: "Yes, and a pathological one preying on vulnerable ones throughout his adult life."
Check out the recent updated compilation on Guardian's website:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/nov/30/donald-trump-sexual-misconduct-allegations-full-list
2
We have a sociopath in the White House. This is one of many accounts. What alarms is that the offense was committed against a woman he knew, but only slightly. Other offenses were committed against women he did not know. He is a serial offender against random victims. He has testified to this behavior and gloried in it. "Locker room talk" parrots his current wife, who does not even live with him. He abused her verbally, at the very least, with Howard Stern. Someday the cover will blow off and he will be exposed as the criminal offender he has always been.
His behavior is closer even to psychopathic than sociopathic. No woman should ever be alone in a room with him.
3
Mr. Blow describes the fugue that has descended upon America in the unrelenting assault on truth and decency that Trump, his supporters and impeachment equivocators have brought upon us.
We haven’t discovered the appropriate strategy against his corruption and venality...America will not survive as a democracy if we don’t muster the will to fight for our country as aggressively as Trump plunders it.
All hail the rapist in chief...
1
Did the Brett Cavanaugh fiasco teach the Democrats nothing?
This woman is - in every way - the exact equivalent of every woman who came forward to accuse Justice Cavanaugh of wrongdoing. She has exactly as much proof and exactly as much credibility...
...in other words, none.
The Democrats really need to get off this line of attack already. It doesn't work and it makes them look insane (i.e. doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result).
1
The answer to the questioning headline: Yes.
1
Hand me the flaming torch--I'm ready.
1
his supporters don't care and this choir is tired of listening to the sermon.
1
Charles is absolutely right. People jumped off a moral cliff when they chose to follow and support Donald Trump, and it is this moral rot/compromise that deeply concerns me. The rationalization of so much that has been cruel, violent, unethical, illegal, and immoral is the lasting impact of the Trump administration. I particularly appreciated this quote: "That is where the edge of death is marked. That is where the rot begins. That is where a society loses itself." In my personal opinion, it is not only the rape itself, but also the attitudes and character traits that lead to rape, that Trump carried into his administration and tarnish everything he touches. There is no such thing as a "good" rapist.
346
@Julia: I agree a thousand percent! And though it starts with the rape, the abuse, and the presumptuous privilege with which trump swaggers, it is the outrage of how he denies what he no doubt did.
He hasn’t humiliated his target adequately, so then he says she’s not attractive enough to warrant his “attentions.”
So often we hear it said of rapists and child abusers that no one would have guessed they were capable of such a thing.
In this case, sixty or more percent of us know he is fully capable of rape. All of his actions and words and phony denials prove it.
I always wonder what daughter Ivanka and sycophants Kellyanne and Sarah really think of their man. He raped Ivanka’s Mother, for god’s sake.
Would any of them leave him alone with their teenage daughters?
4
Accusations do not constitute guilt. Accusing someone doesn't make it true. People lie, and we have a court system to determine the truth. Automatically assuming an accuser is telling the truth, is irresponsible and immature. Also, this is a common tactic used to besmirch someone's reputation.
3
After listening to The Daily today, with its lengthy conversation of E. Jean Carroll and her two confidants, I was gobsmacked...astonished by the wealth of detail of the Bergdorf matter discussed by the three. Please listen and decide for yourself.
Thank you for this reminder. As usual, Mr. Blow is right on the money. The president is a sick, immoral man on so many counts that it is easy to just see it all gloss over. He's likely a rapist. A con artist. He's a pathological liar. In the media and as society we are becoming inured to his sickness and this is a clear danger compounding the danger he already presents by way of rash decision-making. I want him removed from office and tried in a criminal court. He does not deserve to be walking free amongst us, an certainly not occupying the White House pretending to be a king. I hold the entire GOP responsible.
8
The vast majority of the American public is repulsed by everything Trump. We can’t look at him, we can’t listen to him, and we vicserally despise him. However, we are realistic enough to admit that, until the elections, Trump holds the cards to keep him in power: a Senate majority leader, an Attorney General, and a Congressional caucus who are equally despicable. Furthermore, Trump is a constant flood of lies and outrageous and corrupt acts from which we have to pick and choose. For example, do we prioritize our outrage at the abuse and death of children, at the threat of war by an imbecile, or at a rape by a presidential sexual predator? Americans are, for the most part, good people who will never acclimate to the cancer that is Trump. But, there are a substantial minority who still adore him for exactly what he is. And that is the real outrage.
555
@Stu "a Senate majority leader, an Attorney General, and a Congressional caucus who are equally despicable" makes getting rid of Trump impossible before 2020. And I'm sure with help from the Russians, the Saudis and the Chinese we may never get away from this criminal regime.
20
@Stu - with an approval rating of 45%, I'd say that it's not a "vast majority," and therein lies the problem.
2
If he does it, it isn't a crime. It's the thinking of a career criminal, a man with no moral sense. In his case it's a generational thing. His grandfather ran a brothel, his father built the family fortune on discrimination, Trunp's entire career was built on cheating others and working with mobsters. His children have no moral center themselves and have married other low lifes. And the country is full of fools who believe that because he pretends to be one of them, nothing else matters. It's not hard at all to understand why the Steve Mnuchins of the world love him. It's much harder to understand why people try to live their lives in a moral way could support him.
4
Trump once famously told us that he could get away with shooting a man on Fifth Avenue. He is also on record as having said that he can grab women where he wants to "and they just let me."
He might also have accurately stated that could rape a woman in front of the White House in broad daylight and get away with it. Or launch a war there against Mexico with the same result.
He is a President in the midst of a major mental crackup.
The country is in what amounts to a total state of denial, perhaps the closest thing ever recorded in world history to a mass case of amnesia and self-delusion.
He will never be impeached, because Pelosi accurately foresees what the result would be.
The ball will be on America's side of the court on November 3, 2020, provided that we are still holding Presidential elections by that time.
3
Thank you for expressing the outrage that should be forthcoming from the entire country!!
6
How on earth can we believe in justice when our latest Supreme Court Justice was seated in spite of a credible accusation of sexual assault by a woman who had absolutely nothing to gain by coming forward? I no longer can believe that an accusation of rape against the President of the United States will even be investigated. We know our President is a sexual predator; he was recorded admitting it. But nothing will happen. Since when is "She's not my type" an acceptable defense? This is not normal. We need to remember that.
10
Get the Howard Stern tapes.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, and Trump discusses much worst actions on those tapes.
Anyone who lived through this era, and ever listened to Howard can tell you what Trump bragged about doing to and with women.
Where are the tapes?
And as awful as the rape allegations are, why does NO ONE discuss his propensity for walking into the changing rooms of his Miss Teen contestants.
The man has a serious mental illness.
11
It can be difficult for people who have not experienced sexual assault to understand the level of shock and seeming passivity that can overwhelm someone on the receiving end of such an assault in the moments that it is happening and into the aftermath. In our culture, particularly in past generations, women were raised to be pleasing and to be attractive, and to be grateful and even invite male attention and interest. When that male attention/interest crosses boundaries into violence and assault, it can be difficult for the woman to know how to react. That difficulty can be compounded if the perpetrator is someone of a relatively elevated social class, or was someone that the victim was engaged with previously on some kind of social level--conversation, possibly even flirtatious conversation. Needless to say, flirtatious conversation--and I don't know that even took place here--is not an invitation for sex. Nonetheless, the victim--the recipient of the assault--can be overwhelmed with both disbelief at what is happening, and some sense of responsibility/guilt that she should have averted it, embarrassment, shame--all kinds of factors that mute her response in the moment--not to mention the muting that comes at times, the shame, at being physically overpowered. I don't think I am describing this very well, but I know that it is true, and it is part of what supports my belief in Ms. Carroll.
10
This compelling opinion piece and comment section appears the same day that Mr. Trump's and Mr. McConnell's hand picked Supreme Court justices approved permanent gerrymandering. The only remain recourse to Mr. Blow's well outlined historical trend is high voter turnout.
3
I just listened to The Daily podcast for today...an extended conversation with E. Jean Carroll and two confidants discussing the trump/Bergdorf incident. It was eye-opening in its abundance of specifics...and the, to me, generational differences between Carroll’s assessment of the incident and how most women now define sexual assault. Very worthwhile to listen to.
4
There is always the lingering doubt of his word versus her word and how could she not report it at the time. There is seldom any way to resolve these questions, but in this case, Ms. Carroll shared her experience with friends when it happened, and they have corroborated that. That supports her version in spades to me.
10
And now the Dalia Lama has come out in a BBC interview:
“One day he says something, another day he says something. But I think [there is a] lack of moral principle. When he became president, he expressed America first. That is wrong. America, they should take the global responsibility.”
Lack of moral principle. That sums it up. From one of the most admired spiritual leaders on the planet. The world is losing faith in us, and so are we in ourselves. We better pull it together or there may be unimaginable consequences to add to this insufferable reality show. For starters immediately begin impeachment of this dangerous narcissist. Otherwise the whole world loses while dictatorships win.
12
Let's not forget he's also waging war on the poor.
11
I have been thinking that maybe Trump's famous comment about getting away with murder on Fifth Avenue could be his version of a confession; he mixes things up so readily, he could easily have described murder when he meant rape.
Perhaps he is an antisocial crying out, in his own way, to be stopped. While the other kids laugh and cheer him on for their own sick enjoyment...
He is certainly at home in a culture where school shootings are numbed by habituation, and clergy are predators, and 11 year olds are addicted to porn.
I sometimes find myself upset that I get upset with the Times, that my responses are so strong and sometime partially formed - - because it has become one space in my universe where I anticipate compassion and constructive creative consideration of life on earth.
Can anyone still remember Mother Teresa? And 22 years ago, she received an exorcism! Would that the same could be done for Trump! She told us the world needs touch...
1
Thank you, Mr. Blow! Finally, someone gets it, and has explained what’s at stake as clearly and starkly as possible. This cruel, rapacious, moral vacuum is who Trump really is. And who we will be if we don’t act now.
14
How do Christians rationalize their support for this man?
Do his sins stain the souls of those who ignore his wanton immorality and actions that offend decency and the rule of law?
11
While I agree with everything you’ve written, no one does anything. He acts like he’s above the law because he has been,even before the election. Mr. Blow, you, Ms. Dowd, Mr. Kristoff, Mr. Friedman, and many other fine columnists can write, and have written, great pieces all along. But the problem is, nobody does anything. Not the Dems, not regular people. One march over two years ago means very little, unless it’s done in every city, every week or two. Hong Kong won with day after day demonstrations. What a wimp we all are to allow this madman to stay in office. I’m sick and disgusted that nobody does anything, myself included. The man belongs in jail many times over. It’s our fault he still exists.
16
What do you want us to do, other than vote? Take to the streets? (I've done that. Repeatedly.) Chain myself to federal buildings? (I'm tempted.) Send money to worthy opponents? I do that.
Every day I'm screaming inside. Every. Single. Day. It's not numbness -- at this point it's a fight for my mental health and my blood pressure. It's powerlessness. We've been taken over and the feeling is powerlessness and we don't know where to turn to take our power back.
Revolution? Seriously, what's next?
30
Mine may be wild speculation, yet I suspect at Trump finds himself in an awkward position with one way out.
He ran for the 2016 GOP nomination as a ploy to further expand and legitimatize his celebrity-business status. When he found himself to be the election’s surprise winner, he set out to take advantage of the office to embellish his celebrity while continuing to exhibit disdain for honorable business and personal ethics. Nearly three years in, under cover of a DOJ practice of protecting presidents from indictment, he finds himself one year away from not knowing if such protection will be extended to the role of former president. In addition, US district courts (e.g.: SDNY) and state-based judicial jurisdictions lie in wait.
Trump may have only one remaining hand to play to avoid difficult legal problems. A successful run for a second term may provide him extended cover and favorable exposure to the statute of limitations for past deeds. Awkward desperation will drive a very contentious 2020 re-election campaign season.
12
Well said, sir. At least one American has the courage to speak up. As a US expat currently living in the UK, it is very sad to hear, on a daily basis, most Europeans’ increasing concern about the President’s depravity. The harm that he has done to America’s reputation and prestige is incalculable and will haunt America for many years to come. The only beneficiaries are China and Russia who are rapidly stepping in to fill the void as leaders of a new world order.
20
There is one desperately important thing we need to consider:
Criminally everyone deserves the presumption of innocence. It shields those we like and those we despise equally and that fact is our proof that we live in a rules based society where we will get a fair hearing if we are ever accused (rightly or wrongly).
Trump (and sexual predators more broadly) are one of the most painful examples of the price we pay for the rule of law. Did they do this - probably. Can we prove it beyond reasonable doubt - no, especially when a victim of trauma can only bear to come forward long after physical evidence is gone.
So do the thing you can - Trump ran for public office, so did the people who represent you. They stepped into the public square where there is no presumption of innocence. Vote and make it clear to them why you are voting that way. Better yet, convince those you know to vote with you. Do it respectfully and don't tar the voter with the same brush as the politician they backed last time and you might just change the election result.
Oh, and if you're looking for a response to "Clinton did it too" you could always ask - "aren't you better than the Dems who enabled him?" because lets face it the Republican who changes based on morality deserves our respect over the Democrat who didn't.
3
All of Trump' s behavior has been problematic, but it is impossible, when he appears in interviews, not to see the man who assumed he had the right to exploit and assault women as if they were his toys. It makes watching him almost unbearable - and I've interviewed men who raped children( and been a victim).
I don't need to know if this particular woman's story would hold up in a court to know that he's unscrupulous and disdainful of those without power. And that is what it is about: raping or defrauding people he was certain would never get justice.
I take that back: he doesn't HAVE a conception of "justice." He simply mis uses people because it entertains him in the moment, contributes to his voracious ego; or adds to his fortune.
There was, I understand, a revealing interview with Chuck Todd last week. A friend told me. I couldn't watch at all. She couldn't finish watching it.
It is unbearable to grasp that he finds a believing audience for his cacophony of lies; and that even evidence of horrendous behavior has had no impact so far.
7
My question is: does he risk anything legally by all these accusations? Trial? Prison? Is he off the hook because of the statute of limitations? Can he be indicted once he's out of office? Or even while still in office if he's accused of felonies unrelated to his presidential duties? What are the legal issues here?
4
What was he doing in her dressing room? If she allowed him in then on a "look but don't touch" basis then there is blame on both sides
She said he attacked her. The blame is his.
1
Click on the Dean Baquet link embedded in this article, and from there, click on the link to the New Yorker magazine article which is an excerpt from Ms. Carrol’s upcoming book.
So the book is about the 21 “most hideous men” in her life. Trump is No. 20; No. 1 was a 7 year old.
Twenty one men/boys attacked her. And she describes each attack in great detail.
Do I believe her? Yes. I believe she is convinced that she was assaulted by all 21 men, including the 7 year old.
But would a jury believe she did not consent? There I’m not so sure. Read what happened as she describes it. She was modeling lingerie for Trump, as a favor. When he grabbed her in the store dressing room and tried pulling down whatever she was wearing, she just laughed. Then she stomped his foot with her heel and got away. No witnesses were around.
She told 20 other such stories about the other “hideous men,” and indicated there are many others who didn’t make the list.
I wonder if most women could write a book in their 70s graphically describing dozens of men who tried to rape them at various points in their life.
As a man, I know I couldn’t write of a single woman I attacked, because I never attack anyone. But reading this I wonder if there are any women who thinks I did something to them decades ago that they didn’t consent to.
I seriously doubt it, but is it possible?
3
Steven, you may be one of those guys who would never feel the need nor be in a position to want to rape someone. My husband is like you, as are several of the men I've dated. But I can also remember the ones who attacked me, even though in a few cases, I was already their lover. Men rape as a show of power, not a desire for sex. That's what people forget. Since E. Jean was a public figure for a number of years and considering how the world used to be in the 50s through the 90s, I'd say yes, a woman her age could have had encounters with 20 bad men: men who were angry at her for her outspokenness, men angry at her for advising on sex, men who got angry at her for opposing the general status quo (she was married to an African-American man, too.) There are so many reasons a man can hate enough to impose the power of his body on hers. In E. Jean's case, I'm surprised it's only 20.
1
A not incidental benefit of electing any non-Trump potus is removing that office as a practical if not terribly well thought legal obstacle to suing the malefactor. Yes, there are expired periods of limitation but decent people can have them extended retroactively so that a torrent of criminal and civil charges can should must be filed. Restoring dignity to the office? To the extent W can be said to have campaigned if lightly on it, another worthy can take on that aspect of the matter. To the title's question, it's a matter of Mr Trump's intent and from the perspective of actions at law, such can quite probably be inferred. But in his own mind, one may wonder; consider his having told Mr Billy Bush "notoriety gives consent."
1
If this action took place, it should have been reported to the police at the time. At this point, over 20 years later, it is entirely a "she says, he says" situation.
He has, of course, ample reason to deny it even if it did take place. She has equally good reasons to insist that it did occur even if it did not.
Those of us who look for facts have to dismiss both sides, as there is no way to prove either one of them correct. Those who have a bias for or against Mr. Trump will decide based on those biases.
At this late date, all these stories do is increase the divisiveness in the country.
3
@mikecody
No, she doesn’t.
@mikecody
No, she doesn’t.
She did discuss the rape in detail right after it happened with two of her friends, and those women have come forward to corroborate her account. That makes this far from a “he said, she said” situation. Ask any police office officer or investigator that works on sexual violence cases.
1
In the Hollywood Access tapes, Trump declared that in America a star can do anything he wants, they let him do it. He remains a living example of that truth. His record of cheating and fraud concerning his taxes and business interests are legendary, yet he got away with it all. Nothing happened. Federal and state authorities failed to hold him accountable. He encouraged a hostile foreign power to interfere in a national election to help him win and thereafter engaged in an egregious effort to thwart a lawful investigation. Again he was able to evade responsibility, thanks to the squeamish legalisms of Mr. Mueller and the cynicism of Barr and Rosenstein. Nearly two dozen women have accused him of sexual assault, but he has not been held to account in any way. On the contrary, his followers celebrate him for it and some even anoint him as an emissary of God himself. His counselors openly and sometimes gleefully ignore the law, but are not held to account. They (we) let them do it. The GOP and its billionnaire donors, erstwhile party of Christian family values and fiscal responsibility, have given up any pretense of justice, ethics, or morality in their cynical quest for money and power. Their supporters, apparently comprising roughly forty percent of Americans, let them do it. So, is the President above the law? Seems that way to me. Sadly, Americans have placed him there. The President can do anything he wants.
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Yet, she refuses to press charges because, to paraphrase, it would disrespect immigrant women at the border who are suffering the same type of assault. I don't see the sequel in that reasoning and she does all women a disservice by not pressing charges.Oh, we know that she might not get far with that, but it's the right thing to do- to hold someone responsible for their actions. Apparently, no-one is willing to do that with Trump. All of his crimes against individuals and humanity in general is precedent setting and at the very least society needs to state that this is unacceptable, actually, criminal.
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The statute of limitations has run.
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@Mary A
Apparently not in NY....
I don't understand that there aren't criminal charges that must be followed up by law enforcement. If these charges are as serious as I believe they are, then make it a criminal case. At least push it. Is this like impeachment where we assume Perp number 1 is above the law while in office?
The GOP bears ALL the blame for putting this man in office. All of it. He is so out to lunch that he believes he deserves it. This criminal conman that loves our enemies more than he loves our country.
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Give me a break Me too started on the right track but off so often is going too far. Beating the President on any subject has become a national sport for the leftist. Will not change the fact that Trump will be reelected as POTUS. Always voted demos will not in 2020. Trump is the man who makes and keeps America great again.
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I love this article, I do. But don’t do this “your mother, or your wife, sister, daughter, cousin, girlfriend or friend”. No one ever says your father, or your husband, brother, son, cousin, boyfriend, or friend. It is offensive in that no one seems to understand women’s issues unless one has a women in their life. Guess what, all of you have a woman in your life. Pointing that out does not make you a progressive.
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We all agree with you Mr. Blow, but we feel completely helpless. I blame Republicans in Congress the most, because they know better, whereas Trump does not know better.
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In the past, I have talked about the parallelisms between Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi - both came to power exploiting shamelessly theirs image as successful businessmen, neither of which was completely true, both stayed in power thanks to a host of supporters that could see no wrong in anything they did (let's remember that Berlusconi bribed a judge, falsified his enterprises' books and was a member of the "Loggia Propaganda 2") or keep doing.
That said, while The Dwarf in the end fell for having found be tapping a 17 y.o. Moroccan escort, that herself was part of a "stable" of escorts he kept on retainer in a bloc of apartments, he has never been accused of forcing himself on a woman. Of paying many of them for sex, and of not checking too thoroughly their ID cards, maybe, bu not of aggression.
But, as parallels go, seeing what kind of "goblins" have taken Berlusconi's place, in Italy, leads to some uncomfortable thoughts: If the next president from the GOP is to Trump what Salvini is to Berlusconi...
I hope the US change direction, for its sake.
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Americans have been sold an image of themselves a la "It's a Wonderful Life," Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and dozens of sitcoms. America, in turn, tries to sell that image abroad. This country was founded in violence and racism and what we are seeing now just exposed an ugly truth. We are not who we like to think we are. We could be. But, apparently, we do not have the sound needed to achieve that goal. Trump is a mirror of America.
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Whatever the reality of this allegation may be, the reply "She's not my type" coming from the President of the United States merits a full Congressional investigation of sexual harassment and misconduct into this and the other accusations about this man's fitness to hold office.
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