White House Says All the Women Who Accused Trump of Sexual Harassment Are Liars

By Maya Kosoff, Vanity Fair

28 October 17

As more women speak out against sexual predators, the White House insists Trump has been falsely accused.

s a sprawling scandal involving Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has emboldened growing numbers of women in the media and entertainment industries to speak openly about sexual harassment and assault, the Trump White House has doubled down on its stance that the women who accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment, assault, and misconduct, of which there are more than a dozen, are liars. “At least 16 women accused the president of sexually harassing them throughout the course of the campaign,” a reporter said during Friday’s White House press briefing. “Last week, during a press conference in the Rose Garden, the president called these accusations fake news. Is the official White House position that all of these women are lying?”

“Yeah, we’ve been clear on that from the beginning, and the president has spoken on it,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded before moving on to another subject.

At the Rose Garden press conference last week, Trump was asked about allegations involving former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, who claimed Trump kissed and groped her after she was eliminated from the show’s fifth season. Zervos’s attorneys subpoenaed the Trump campaign for documents related to her claims and the claims of other accusers; when Trump denied the request, insisting his accusers’ stories were “made up,” she sued him for defamation. The president downplayed the claims before reporters, calling them “totally fake news,” “disgraceful,” and “made-up stuff.” In contrast, the president was only too eager to believe the allegations against Weinstein when they were first reported. “I’ve known Harvey Weinstein for a long time,” he told reporters earlier this month as he boarded Air Force One outside the White House. “I’m not at all surprised to see it.”

In recent weeks, similar accusations have entangled such high-profile men as NBC journalist Mark Halperin and former New Republic editor Leon Wieseltier, leading Trump’s accusers to question why the president seems immune. “It is hard to reconcile that Harvey Weinstein could be brought down with this, and [President] Trump just continues to be the Teflon Don,” Jessica Leeds, who accused Trump of groping her on an airplane, told The Washington Post. Melinda McGillivray, who alleges the president groped her at Mar-a-Lago in 2003, reacted similarly. “What pisses me off is that the guy is president,” she said. “It’s that simple.”