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FULL STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP ON NEW SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATION
Tag: sexual assault
‘I’VE NEVER MET THIS PERSON IN MY LIFE’: Trump ‘absolutely’ denies latest sexual assault allegation
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday vehemently denied allegations that he sexually assaulted writer E. Jean Carroll after the advice columnist accused the president of raping her in a department store dressing room back in the 1990’s.
“False accusations diminish the severity of real assault. All should condemn false accusations and any actual assault in the strongest possible terms,” Trump said in a released statement.
“If anyone has information that the Democratic Party is working with Ms. Carroll or New York Magazine, please notify us as soon as possible,” he continued. “The world should know what’s really going on. It is a disgrace and people should pay dearly for such false accusations.”
Carroll, who made the allegations in an interview with New York Magazine, said Trump attacked her out of nowhere and that she was helpless to stop his advances.
“The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips. I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again,” Carroll claimed. “He seizes both my arms and pushes me up against the wall a second time, and, as I become aware of how large he is, he holds me against the wall with his shoulder and jams his hand under my coat dress and pulls down my tights.”
The president, however, says the allegations were timed in an effort to boost sales for Carroll’s new book, and claimed he has “never met her in my life.”
“She is trying to sell a new book—that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section,” he said.
“Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try to get any publicity for themselves, or sell a book, or carry out a political agenda—like Julie Swetnick who falsely accused Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It’s just as bad for people to believe it, particularly when there is zero evidence.”
LAUER AXED: ‘Today Show’ host latest to be targeted by sexual misconduct claims
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Matt Lauer has been fired from his high profile role as host of “The Today Show,” according to a press release by the network.
Lauer, who had hosted the morning news show for more than 20 years, was terminated after a colleague complained about inappropriate sexual behavior toward her, NBC News chief Andrew Lack said in a memo published to the show’s website (https://www.today.com/video/matt-lauer-has-been-terminated-from-nbc-news-1105840707690).
According to the statement, although the colleague’s complaint was the first official allegation received by the network regarding Lauer’s behavior, show executives have cause to believe more allegations may soon surface.
“On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer,” the memo reads.
Lack said the allegation against Lauer “represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment.”
“While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident,” the memo continued.
Lauer’s longtime “Today Show” co-host, Savannah Guthrie, confirmed the news to viewers on Wednesday morning. “All we can say is we are heartbroken; I’m heartbroken,” Guthrie said.
Describing Lauer as “a dear, dear friend,” Guthrie said she was “heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story.”
Calls for statement to Lauer’s publicist were met with “no comment at this time”.
‘STEP DOWN!’: Abuse victims call for Franken, Conyers, Barton to resign
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, and Kathleen Willey are calling for Senators Al Franken, (D)-Minn, John Conyers, (D)-Mich., and Joe Barton, (R)- Tex, to resign.
The three women, who have each accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual assault, have scheduled a press conference for Wednesday where they plan to demand that both Franken and Baron vacate their positions immediately in light of the recent allegations against them.
Melanie Morgan, who has accused Sen. Franken of sexual harassment, is also scheduled to attend the press conference, as is Dr. Alveda King, niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King. Leslie Millwee, the latest woman to come forward to accuse Clinton of sexual assault, says she too will be present. The event will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Franken is accused of groping multiple women, including radio host Leann Tweeden, who recently came forward with claims that Franken kissed her against her will.
“Our message is clear,” the women said in a press release. “Both Senator Franken and Congressman Conyers must resign now. And Congress must end taxpayer-funded payouts to harassment victims in an effort to silence their voices and complaints.”
Radio talk show host Blanquita Cullum, who has helped to organize the press conference, says their goal is to force the three men to step down.
“There are members we feel have dishonored their office and the American people by conduct unbecoming an elected official. As you can see, it’s not partisan. We feel that way about the left and the right. We’re out there saying it’s not the politics of the right and the left. It’s the politics of the right and the wrong,” said Cullum.
“The other thing we’re going to demand is the release of the list of the slush/hush fund that taxpayers funded to the amount of $17 million over the past 10 years, covering up their private sexual peccadilloes, fights that have involved members from both sides of the aisle and some very high-ranking chiefs of staff,” Cullum continued. “One thing the members have forgotten is who their real bosses are,” she said. “We hired them. It’s our money that’s paid for it. We feel it’s the right thing for them to do to let us know what we’ve been paying for. And if it’s something bad, they need to go.”
CLINTON CRIMES: Bill Clinton to face new accusations of sexual assault, says report
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bill Clinton may soon be answering to new allegations of sexual assault, says a bombshell report by the U.K.’s Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5090399/Bill-Clinton-accused-sexual-assault-four-women.html).
According to the report, Clinton has been notified that four separate women plan to testify that the former president sexually assaulted them after leaving the White House in 2001. Best selling author and journalist Ed Klein says he has been made aware of the report and that a member of Clinton’s legal team has confirmed the allegations.
This is not the first time that Clinton has been accused of sexual misconduct.
The 42nd president and husband of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was famously impeached in 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice relating to an affair with his much younger intern Monica Lewinsky.
Clinton was also accused of varying degrees of sexual assault by a slew of women, including Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey and has admitted to at least two extramarital affairs during his marriage.
Klein, who has penned a number of politically motivated tell-all books, says the women coming forward this time to accuse Clinton were employed in “low-level positions” at an organization owned by billionaire playboy Ron Burkle. Klein asserts that many of the incidents in question took place on Burkle’s private jet — which he claims was commonly referred to as “Air Fuck One.”
Klein reports that in an effort to buy the women’s continued silence, Clinton has engaged in lengthy negotiations with their attorneys and is prepared to pay a hefty sum to secure just that.
If successful, this will not the first time that Clinton has settled out of court. In 1998 Clinton paid Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee who worked for Clinton during his term as Governor, $850,000 to drop a civil suit Jones had filed against him in which she accused the then president of exposing himself to her inside a Little Rock hotel. The information which surfaced as a result of that case helped lead to Clinton’s impeachment.
FRANKENGATE: Second woman to accuse Al Franken of sexual assault opens up as Senator continues to deny allegations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The second woman to accuse Democratic Senator Al Franken of sexual assault is stepping up her claims, according to published reports.
Lindsay Menz told her story to CNN on Monday, claiming that Franken groped her while posing for a photo with her at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010 (http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/politics/al-franken-inappropriate-touch-2010/index.html). Menz was the second woman to accuse Franken of sexual assault in less than a week, following allegations made by Los Angeles radio anchor Leeann Tweeden that Franken forcibly kissed and groped her during a 2006 tour while supporting the USO.
Menz detailed her claims after tweeting about the incident last Thursday, following Tweeden’s revelations.
“In August 2010, @alfranken grabbed me while taking a photo together at the Minnesota State Fair,” Menz tweeted last week. “I felt violated & embarassed. I 100% believe your account of him & his actions, @LeeannTweeden. Thank you for sharing your story. #metoo.”
Menz told CNN the incident occurred almost two years after Franken was elected to the Senate as she worked her father’s radio booth, meeting various elected officials, political candidates, and celebrities at the fair.
Menz says as she posed for the photo with the Minnesota Senator, Franken “pulled me in really close, like awkward close, and as my husband took the picture, he put his hand full-fledged on my rear. It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek.”
“It wasn’t around my waist. It wasn’t around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt,” she said. “I was like, oh my God, what’s happening.”
“I felt gross. It’d be like being walking through the mall and some random person grabbing your butt,” Menz continued. “You just feel gross. Like ew, I want to wash that off of me.”
In a statement to CNN, Franken denied the allegations but said he apologized if he made Menz feel “uncomfortable” during the encounter.
“I take thousands of photos at the state fair surrounded by hundreds of people, and I certainly don’t remember taking this picture,” Franken said. “I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected.”
The allegations against Franken have led to calls for him to step down, even from some of his own party’s staunchest supporters.
“What kind of party do we want to be?” Democratic South Carolina state representative Bakari Sellers said on Friday. “The Democratic Party has to clean up their own house….And what I mean by that is its fair for me to say, as I do believe, that Al Franken should resign. I’m a Democrat saying Al Franken should resign.”
DIRTY POLITICS: Yet another woman comes forward to accuse George H.W. Bush of sexual assault
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Another woman has come forward to accuse former president George H.W. Bush of sexual assault.
The latest woman to accuse the 41st president of wrongdoing claims that the incident occurred during a fundraiser for Bush’s re-election campaign in Dearborn, Michigan in 1992.
The accuser, who does not wish to be identified, told CNN that Bush grabbed her buttocks as the two posed for a photo together (http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/george-h-w-bush-accuser-1992/index.html).
“We got closer together for a family photo and it was like ‘Holy crap!'” she said, describing the incident. “It was like a gentle squeeze.”
When asked why she did not come forward until now, the woman, now 55, claims she felt too intimidated up until now.
“All the focus has been on ‘He’s old.’ OK, but he wasn’t old when it happened to me,” she told CNN. “I’ve been debating what to do about it.”
The latest accuser is the 7th woman to come forward with claims that Bush touched them inappropriately or made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including one woman, Rosyln Corrigan, who claimed she was 16 years old at the time.
“My initial reaction was absolute horror. I was really, really confused,” Corrigan told Time Magazine (http://time.com/5019182/george-hw-bush-groping-allegation/). “The first thing I did was look at my mom and, while he was still standing there, I didn’t say anything.”
“What does a teenager say to the ex-president of the United States?” she asked.
A Bush spokesperson issued a statement of apology on behalf of the former president last month after first being accused of groping actress Heather Lind.
Calls for comment to a Bush spokesperson on the latest allegations have not yet been returned.
FRANKENGATE: Democratic Senator Al Franken hit with allegations of sexual assault
WASHINGTON, D.C.– Democratic Senator Al Franken was hit with allegations Thursday of kissing and groping a woman without her consent.
Leeann Tweeden, a radio news anchor with KABC in Los Angeles, said she met Franken in December 2006 while on USO tour to entertain military members, and it was then that the sexual assault occurred.
“In December of 2006, I embarked on my ninth USO Tour to entertain our troops, my eighth to the Middle East since the 9/11 attacks. My father served in Vietnam and my then-boyfriend (and now husband, Chris) is a pilot in the Air Force, so bringing a ‘little piece of home’ to servicemembers stationed far away from their families was both my passion and my privilege,” Tweeden said in a statement (http://www.kabc.com/2017/11/16/leeann-tweeden-on-senator-al-franken/).
“(Franken) put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth,” Tweeden claims. “All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth.I felt disgusted and violated.”
In a lengthy statement, Franken admitted to the incident and said he regretted any pain it may have caused.
“The first thing I want to do is apologize: to Leeann, to everyone else who was part of that tour, to everyone who has worked for me, to everyone I represent, and to everyone who counts on me to be an ally and supporter and champion of women,” the junior United States Senator from Minnesota wrote.
“I respect women. I don’t respect men who don’t,” he continued. “And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.”
The allegations against Franken are just the latest in a series of accusations against high ranking members of the government and entertainment industries.
Over the course of the past month, Alabama Senatorial candidate Roy Moore, actor/director Woody Allen and media mogul Harvey Weinstein have been accused of sexual assault by women who claim they were too intimidated to come forward before.
Meanwhile, lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic sides have called for an investigation into the allegations against Franken.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called the accusations “troubling” and said
“sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated.”
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