How can this story keep getting worse?
The Republican Party must be suffering from history’s worst case of buyer’s remorse. As the campaign of their reprehensible presidential nominee spirals completely out of control, they are as helpless as witnesses to a train wreck.
Last week, when the tape of the sex obsessed Trump was made public, key members of the party desperately tried to distance themselves from the man. Others, however, tried to brush off the admissions of assault as “locker room talk” among manly men.
Trump himself claimed during the second presidential debate that he had never done what he’d been describing.
He lied.
The New York Times reports that at least two women have come forward since the debate to claim that the candidate had most certainly committed sexual assault against them.
One of the women is a businesswoman named Jessica Leeds. Her assault took place on an airplane.
The second woman to come forward to the Times is Rachel Crooks. Back in 2005, the same year when he was bragging that he often grabbed and kissed women without asking, Rachel was a 22 year old receptionist. She worked for a real estate investment firm located in Trump tower.
One day while she was waiting for an elevator in the building, Donald Trump came along. She hadn’t ever met him, but she knew who he was. Given that her firm did business with Trump, she decided to introduce herself.
Rachel Crooks says that she shook hands with Trump, but that he didn’t let go after the handshake. She says that he pulled her in and started to kiss her on her cheeks. Then he kissed her directly on the mouth. She knew that the lip lock was no accident.
Just like he bragged about on the famous tape.
Crooks was obviously shaken by the encounter. She said:
“It was so inappropriate. I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
The young woman was so upset by the assault that she hurried back to her desk to call her sister in the small Ohio town where they had grown up. Her sister was just as shocked as she was by Trump’s unwanted advances.
Like Ms. Leeds, Rachel Crooks kept this story to herself until now. Like so many women victims, she was ashamed and embarrassed by what had happened.
However, hearing Trump’s denial that he had ever committed assault on a woman, she felt that she needed to go public.
When the New York Times contacted Trump about the women’s claims, he reacted in predictable ways. He began to shout, he denied having done any of what was alleged, repeating the inane argument that it was “locker room talk.”
Trump called the reporter who was questioning him “a disgusting human being.” Then he threatened to sue the paper if it printed the allegations.
They printed the story anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxY5_nG07Vc
Featured image via YouTube Screengrab.
