Our degrading election gets the catchphrase it deserves.
Earlier this week, Donald Trump tried to explain away his long history of outrageously misogynist comments by saying, “A lot of that was done for the purpose of entertainment.” It was obvious at the time that this was not true, and now we have conclusive proof. The Washington Post’s indefatigable David Fahrenthold has obtained a 2005 recording of Trump talking about women with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush on a hot mic. In it, he boasts of how, when he sees a beautiful woman, he likes to start kissing her without preliminaries. “I don’t even wait,” Trump, said, as Bush eggs him on. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy.” This is how Trump talks privately, which is at once shocking and entirely unsurprising.
In an election in which no individual outrage seems to matter, it’s possible that this one might. It’s not just that we have further evidence of what sort of person Trump is. Trump’s words sounded an awful lot like cavalier boasts about sexual assault. They’re particularly disturbing when you consider that Jill Harth, the makeup artist who accused Trump of attempted rape in a 1997 lawsuit, said that Trump grabbed her sexually. Ivanka Trump defended her father by insisting that the man she knows is “not a groper.” Now we know that Trump himself says otherwise. It is thus not just legitimate but imperative that journalists ask Trump what he meant by “Grab them by the pussy.” Luckily, there is a debate on Sunday.
AdvertisementThe exchange is relevant to the debate in other ways as well. Ever since his disgraceful performance in his last faceoff with Clinton, Trump and his surrogates have been threatening to bring up Bill Clinton’s affairs. If he does, Hillary Clinton has every reason to discuss Trump’s unapologetic talk about pursuing a married woman. “I did try and fuck her,” Trump said on the Bush tape. (It’s not clear whom he was talking about, and if the attempted fucking was before or after his 2005 marriage to Melania Trump.) “She was married,” he continued. “I moved on her very heavily. … I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. … Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything.” It’s worth noting that Harth also described Trump pursuing her relentlessly even though she had a boyfriend, George Houraney. In her lawsuit, she quotes Trump demanding that she “cheat on George.” Indeed, the man she describes in that suit sounds a lot like the man on the Billy Bush recording. Her story becomes more credible when we have Trump himself on tape describing his M.O. We might come to remember “Grab them by the pussy” as an analogue to Mitt Romney’s 47 percent speech. If so, it will be an appropriate catchphrase for the most degrading election in American history.
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.
Tweet Share Share Comment(责任编辑:产品中心)
- ·17 Spectacular Outdoor Staircases
- ·雅安动植物基因库之斑背潜鸭
- ·Moon, Trump to discuss military options against North Korea: McMaster
- ·惬意!雅安市民生活在“森林”中
- ·The Apple iPod: Pocket Music Before That Phone
- ·N. Korea likely to make another major provocation this month: experts
- ·重塑“向往的生活”!《设计新生》项目首站落地佛冈县水头镇
- ·Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti Overclocking Guide
- ·Top 10 Most Significant Nvidia GPUs of All Time
- ·3个粤茶品牌入围!2023中国地理标志农产品(茶叶)区域公用品牌声誉百强榜公布
- ·Sinner vs. Michelsen 2024 livestream: Watch US Open for free
- ·Twitter so shocked at a TV host doing her job, the clip went viral
- ·Trump's meeting with Kim caps a week of authoritarian buffoonery.
- ·Yoon says security situation is tough amid talk of possible NK nuclear test
- ·10 Places to Get to Know Paul Bunyan
- ·Police to continue to ban rallies near presidential office
- ·[Graphic News] Nearly 1 in 5 children in S. Korea ‘unhappy’: survey
- ·生活用水再利用 绿色生活方式受青睐
- ·Campbell highlights Washington Declaration amid security concerns over Putin
- ·Transfer Steam Games to a New Drive Without Redownloading