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Understanding the Trump era
Two powerful men in America are on trial this week.
One has been accused of sexual harassment or assault by at least 100 women. He has since been charged with sexual assault and rape. Five women have taken the stand in recent days to testify that he had a pattern of manipulation, abuse, and assault. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
The other man has been accused of sexually harassing, assaulting, or otherwise violating more than 20 women. However, he has faced no criminal consequences in connection with any of these allegations. His current trial, in the US Senate, concerns the allegation that he pressured a foreign government to investigate his political rival. Thanks to a vote by Republicans unwilling to challenge him, no witnesses will be called. He is all but certain to be acquitted and will run for reelection in November.
The first man is producer Harvey Weinstein. The second, of course, is President Donald Trump.
Since the allegations against Weinstein became public in 2017, a year almost to the day after Trump was heard on tape bragging about his ability to grab women “by the pussy,” many have noted the similarities: two powerful men, both repeatedly accused of using their power and fame and wealth to prey on women sexually. One big difference, though, as some of Trump’s accusers have pointed out, is that while Weinstein has been ousted from his company and denounced by former friends, Trump is president of the United States, and enjoys the continued backing of his party and political allies.
That has remained true throughout his impeachment inquiry and trial. Although Sen. Kamala Harris has brought up Trump’s statements about women on the Access Hollywood tape, the allegations of sexual misconduct have mostly fallen by the wayside amid attention to his dealings with Ukraine. The difference in how America has responded to the two men says a lot, not just about the mores of Washington and Hollywood but about partisanship, power, and accountability.
The allegations against Weinstein and Trump are strikingly similar
The stories of Trump and Weinstein have a lot in common. Both men have been accused of touching women against their will, of making unsolicited and sexualized comments about women’s bodies, of using their power to coerce women into sex and to protect themselves in the aftermath.
Both men have been caught on tape. In a recording published by the New Yorker, Weinstein appears to admit to groping model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez and pressures her to come to his room. In the Access Hollywood tape released in October 2016, Trump bragged that his celebrity status allowed him to touch women: “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he said. “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” After the tape was released, several women came forward to say that Trump had done the things he described, kissing and touching them without their consent.
Trump also boasted to Howard Stern about going backstage at the beauty pageants he owned and seeing the contestants naked. “I’m allowed to go in, because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it,” he said. “And you see these incredible looking women, and so I sort of get away with things like that.”
A number of former pageant contestants have said that Trump did, in fact, walk in on them while they were changing. “Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half-naked changing into our bikinis,” Tasha Dixon, who competed in the Miss USA pageant in 2001, told CBS Los Angeles. “He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Other girls were naked.”
Weinstein allegedly bragged to women about actresses with whom he’d had sex. Trump made similar claims, according to Barbara Res, who worked with Trump for about 18 years. “He used to talk about famous women calling him and wanting him, even when he was married,” she said. No one believed him, she added, “but he had that tendency to equate his greatness with his conquering of women.”
Both men also used deep relationships with the gossip press and a powerful armada of lawyers and legal threats to try to bully both alleged victims and reporters into silence. Weinstein’s litigiousness was legendary, and he allegedly silenced victims through settlements with ironclad
Sourse: vox.com
