WhatFinger

And he threatens to sue the New York Times for libel, too.

Trump: Women's accusations of groping are 'complete fabrication'

By Dan Calabrese ——--October 13, 2016

American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

One the one hand, dude, the entire country heard you on tape not only talking about doing the very thing you're now being accused of, but bragging about it. That tends to complicate the standard denial. On the other hand, it is awfully curious that these accusations never came out until mere days after the tapes laid the groundwork for them, is it not? Where were these women before? Or was the timing of everything orchestrated by everyone involved - including NBC and the New York Times - to maximize damage to Trump? First we'll release the tapes so everyone will be convinced he behaves like this, then we'll bring for the specific accusers. No one will believe his denials. Result: President Hillary.
Even so, Trump is completely uncompromising in his denials:
Donald Trump denied claims Thursday from an increasing number of women who say the Republican presidential nominee inappropriately touched, groped, and kissed them without their consent. "The phony story in the failing @nytimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION. Written by same people as last discredited story on woman. WATCH!" Trump tweeted Thursday. The New York Times story published Wednesday night on two women who said Trump forced himself upon them — one on an airplane more than three decades ago and another at Trump Tower in 2005 — was one in a series of reports from women who accused the GOP presidential nominee of inappropriate behavior in years past. People magazine published an account from a former writer who said Trump shoved her against a wall and tried to kiss her during a break in an interview for a story about the first anniversary of his marriage to Melania Trump. "During the presidential debate, Donald Trump lied about kissing women without their consent," Natasha Stoynoff wrote. "I should know. His actions made me feel bad for a very long time. They still do." Trump also denied that account, tweeting: "Why didn't the writer of the twelve year old article in People Magazine mention the 'incident' in her story. Because it did not happen!"
Not only that, but Trump is threatening to sue the New York Times for libel - a very steep climb for sure, but usually one you don't even think about if what they're saying about you is real. Then again, you can't apply the usual rules of convention to Trump, so who knows what you can glean from this?
Donald J. Trump threatened to sue The New York Times for libel on Wednesday night in response to an article that featured two women accusing him of touching them inappropriately years ago. The threat of legal action comes as the Trump campaign has been ensnared in controversy after the release of a video last week that showed the Republican nominee for president demeaning women and bragging about being able to force himself on women without consequence. During a presidential debate on Sunday night, Mr. Trump said that it was just “locker-room talk” and that he never did those things. Mr. Trump told The Times that the allegations of the two women were false and his lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, demanded that the newspaper retract the story and issue an apology. “Your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se,” Mr. Kasowitz wrote. “It is apparent from, among other things, the timing of the article, that it is nothing more than a politically motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump’s candidacy.”

Support Canada Free Press

Donate
As you probably know, it's almost impossible for a public figure to win a libel suit against a newspaper, especially when the paper has cited named sources as the Times has done here. That said, I would not put it past the Times for one second to publish source accounts it knew were not true in order to achieve a political objective. That sounds like a very New York Times sort of thing to do. But they can always hide behind the defense that they were just reporting what their sources told them. In order to keep this from hurting him, Trump will have to cast doubt on the credibility of the women himself - although that is much harder to do now that everyone has heard the tape. I thought was very fair to raise the question about why the People Magazine reporter went ahead and reported her story 12 years ago and never mentioned the supposed incident. But I can also imagine a scenario in which a female reporter faced with boorish behavior by a rich and powerful man might consider it the path of least resistance to just shut up and do her job. I do think there is one potential pitfall for Trump's enemies in bringing these women forth. Trump's words on the tape, no one can deny are authentic. Not even him, which is why he quickly apologized. Specific incidents, though? Real accusers who might have credibility problems of their own? If any of these women turn out to have Ginger White or Anita Hill type credibility problems, now Trump looks like the victim of a smear campaign - whereas before he couldn't blame anyone or anything but his own words for the trouble he was in.
Subscribe

View Comments
Dan Calabrese——

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.

VIEW Comments

Sponsored