People Who Think Trump Allegations Are Distracting
In must-see TV on Tuesday night, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had a meltdown, furious that Fox anchor Megyn Kelly had devoted more time to Donald Trump’s 2005 comments bragging about committing sexual assault than to Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails. In a combative exchange, Gingrich accused Kelly of being "fascinated with sex" and not caring "about public policy."
"You know what, Mr. Speaker? I am not fascinated by sex, but I am fascinated by the protection of women and understanding what we’re getting in the Oval Office," Kelly said.
Trump’s treatment of women became a national issue after he was heard bragging about using his star power to grab women "by the pussy" in the leaked tape. Around a dozen women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. Since the fallout, polls show a potentially historic gender gap between Clinton and Trump supporters, with an overwhelming percentage of women supporting Clinton.
Yet Gingrich is far from the only Republican leader who believes that talking about the sexual assault allegations is a distraction from the issues that really matter.
1. Donald Trump. Though Trump apologized for the comments he made in the tape, in the same breath he also excused them as "locker room talk" and said, “Let’s be honest: We’re living in the real world. This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today.”
2. Katrina Pierson. Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson falsely equated sex (which is a consensual act) with sexual assault when she similarly dismissed Trump’s 2005 comments in a CNN interview and called the tape a “distraction.” "We are talking about a society who puts women on a pedestal because of a sex tape," she said.
CNN host Carol Costello challenged Pierson, asking, "But that doesn’t make what Mr. Trump said right. Right?”
"That’s exactly why he apologized," Pierson said. "But this really is a distraction."
3. Mike Pence. Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, maintained the campaign message on Trump’s sexual assault when he told CBS: "We are simply not going to allow the slander and lies emerging from the Clinton political machine - and being propagated in the media - to distract from the real issues affecting the American people.”
4. Scottie Nell Hughes. CNN commentator and Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes tried to discredit the alleged victims when she told CNN’s Don Lemon, “That’s what makes this very questionable and there are holes in some of these women’s arguments, but the whole point about this is, Don, we’ve spent all day, we spent this entire show talking about this instead of what really is the main issues, which we need to be focusing on.”
“That’s really insulting, especially as someone who is a survivor of sexual abuse, and who is a product of a single mother, and was raised with all sisters and aunts who looked after me,” Lemon responded. “I would say this is a very important issue in American society right now.”
5. Ben Carson. Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, who has endorsed Trump, said the conversation about sexual assault allegations against Trump was a distraction and said, while it’s "abominable," "let’s move on." Carson said it’s "absolutely not" OK to talk this way but simultaneously believes perhaps the reason it’s gotten such attention is that not enough women have heard men talk like that.
“As I was growing up, people were always trying to talk about their sexual conquests and trying to make themselves appear, you know, like the, Don - you know, Casanova,” Carson told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard that. I really am.”
“I haven’t heard it, and I know a lot of people who have not heard it,” she said.
“Well, maybe that’s the problem,” Carson said. “The problem is that people haven’t heard this.”
He continued, "Whether they’ve heard it or not, the issue is the train that’s going off the cliff. We can come back after we save the country."
6. Sean Hannity. Conservative radio host Sean Hannity dismissed the sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump as a “distraction” from the real issue at hand: Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails.
7. Dan Donovan. New York state representative Dan Donovan, R-NY 11, wants to move on from discussing sexual assault allegations because he believes that makes Trump “even” with Hillary Clinton.
"I think some of the things that have recently come out, some of the things that he has said, some of the things that people have said about him and things he did, are disgusting," Donovan said at a press conference in October. Then the double standard set in, when Donovan he compared a male candidate who faces sexual assault allegations to a female candidate who has never been accused of sexual assault. "I also think that what Secretary Clinton said about the women who her husband abused, that they’re liars, they’re pigs, they’re sluts is disgusting as well. So they’re even. That’s not the issue that people should be concentrating on." (But Trump has called women pigs - and worse - and has dismissed any concerns over that as an obsession with political correctness).
“It’s been a great distraction,” he added.
8. Jeffrey Lord. Trump surrogate Jeffrey Lord doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. “I’m a baby boomer. It’s my generation where the sexual revolution and all of this sort of stuff - none of this stuff mattered. And now, all of a sudden it does,” he said on AC360 essentially dismissing the outrage over Trump’s comments as political correctness.
“We need to focus on the issues,” Lord said. “What goes on in these [Clinton] emails, what is the economy, foreign policy?”
9. Corey Lewandowski. Former Trump campaign manager and current CNN commentator Corey Lewandowski told CNN’s Jake Tapper “nobody cares” about Trump’s comments in the 2005 tape. He went to accuse the media of bias against Trump for covering the story and urged them to “move on.”
“You guys have given a pass to Hillary Clinton because she’s apologized for having a private server,” he said. “You want to relitigate, and he’s apologized, so let’s move on past it. Let’s talk about [what] the American people care about.”
Follow Prachi on Twitter.
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