Almost from the moment that The New York Times revealed that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein had paid off dozens of women over the years to silence their claims that he’d sexually harassed them, a certain element of the right tried to turn it into a partisan issue. By seizing on Weinstein’s history as a Democratic megadonor, they tried to tie Weinstein around the Democrats’ necks like an anchor.
As outrageous as this was in and of itself, it was even more so considering that many of them were the same people who tried to convince us last fall that numerous allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Donald Trump weren’t a big deal. For example, Larry Elder claimed that Trump’s alleged debauchery was “child’s play” compared to that of Weinstein–a year after he shared a link calling for a Republican staffer suspected of leaking the “Access Hollywood” tapes to be punished.
Well, a recent poll conducted by YouGov for HuffPost suggests an explanation for this disconnect. Trump’s diehard supporters are convinced that Weinstein is a sexual predator, but aren’t willing to believe that their messiah is one.
The poll revealed that 62 percent of all Americans believe the allegations against Weinstein are credible, while only three percent believe they aren’t credible; the rest are either unsure or haven’t heard enough about them to form an opinion. This view cuts across the entire spectrum. More than 74 percent of Hillary Clinton voters and 66 percent of Trump voters believe Weinstein’s accusers are telling the truth. Further underlining this, 69 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of Republicans, and 59 percent of independents believe the allegations are credible.
But things changed dramatically when the question turned to the allegations against Trump. As a whole, 45 percent of Americans believe that these allegations are credible, while only 18 percent believe they are not credible. But while 83 percent of Hillary voters believed they were credible, 51 percent of Trump voters believed they were not credible. What is more, a mere eight percent of Trump voters were willing to believe the allegations against Trump were credible. While 69 percent of Democrats and 40 percent of independents believed the allegations were credible, a plurality of Republicans–37 percent–believed they were not credible.
Never mind that Trump was caught on tape making very specific boasts about how he treated women. This is not unlike a poll earlier this summer which revealed only 45 percent of Trump voters believed Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with Russians in hopes of getting dirt on Hillary–even after Donald Jr. admitted the meeting occurred.
The Twitterverse had a collective headdesk at this development.
This isnt partisanship. Its cognitive dissonance. There's something wrong with conservative brains. #TheRightIsWrong https://t.co/9wchaSeuOL
— Dan Murphy (@DanMurphy2018) October 20, 2017
https://t.co/DMskeh6IWf Because they are dumb. Really truly. They believe an orange bully liar racist narcissist misogynistic adulterer.
— p&twhite (@pandtwhite) October 21, 2017
If you’re a Trump supporter, kindly spare us your selective outrage at the Weinstein scandal. #MeToo #RapeIsNotAJoke https://t.co/quQllcvYoM
— Independent Patriot (@TylerBlackwell4) October 22, 2017
Cult45 voters believe allegations against Weinstein, but not against 45* (Ripley’s Believe It Or Not ?) https://t.co/zXFtmX932s
— Sue ❄️ #TheResistance ? (@zsarrina) October 21, 2017
We’ve all wondered how the “Access Hollywood” tapes didn’t send Trump into a death spiral last fall. And the women who have accused Trump of assaulting them have wondered why their claims have–so far–resulted in no action. Well, now we have at least part of the answer.
Sebastian Gorka claimed–with a straight face–that Weinstein was the product of liberals working overtime to destroy the right’s culture of respect for women. That talking point now stands discredited with this new poll. After all, based on these numbers, that supposed culture doesn’t exist–if it existed at all.
(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
