A new leaked tape was posted on the Bangor Daily News yesterday of Donald Trump during a fundraiser in Maine where he met with supporters. It was also picked up by Progressive site New Century Times. In it, he said that the sexual allegations will get him elected. The tape is seven minutes long, but the real meat is found starting around the 1:45 mark of the seven minute tape in the link.
In it, he said that the allegations of sexual assault were false, that they would backfire on Hillary Clinton, and that they would catapult him into the White House. The tape starts out with Trump saying, “She is one crooked woman.” It’s really interesting to see the parallels between Mr. Trump and Mitt Romney, who talked himself into believing that he would win by an electoral landslide back in 2012. For instance, he claims he is up 10 points in Maine, which no reasonable poll I have seen shows.
At the 1:11 mark, he said that he never saw many of these women who have accused him. But a fact of human nature is that some people don’t remember things as well as other things do. I have a business partner with whom I worked for two decades ago and he never remembered me working for him. On the other hand, I remember things quite vividly, although I forget things easily. Some women block out memories of being sexually abused, but many others remember it vividly. Mr. Trump is dismissive on the tape about one allegation that happened in 1980, but I remember things from before then even though I was a child.
At the 1:19 mark, Trump talks about one case where the woman’s cousin comes forward and says that she wasn’t there. But that does not account for the other 15 allegations that have been made against him, by Politico’s count. At the 1:39 mark, Mr. Trump argues that there were no witnesses. But in Natasha Stoynoff’s case, there were six who have come forward to corroborate her account. So there is at least one case where there are witnesses. That doesn’t stop Mr. Trump from saying on the video, “These are bad people, these are liars.” This is a typical way of shaming people who come forward with allegations of rape or sexual assault.
At the 3:46 mark of the video, Trump reiterates his call for censorship, saying, “It’s disgraceful they’re allowed to say it,” regarding the accusations. But he opened the can of worms by bragging about groping people and then denying to Anderson Cooper that he had groped people. At the 4 minute mark, he brags that there will be a backlash against the media and against Hillary. I’ll believe it when I see it.
I don’t know what the law is on statute of limitations in other states, but in Missouri, there is no such thing when it comes to sex crimes of this nature. This tape shows a man who shows no remorse over what he did. This will only cause other women to come out of the closet and tell their stories of being groped by Trump, and there are plenty of prosecutors and civil lawyers out there who would love to bring down a celebrity, even if he weren’t running for President.
The fact that he was secretly being filmed shows that there are plenty of other rats who are planning to jump the sinking ship or who were never on board in the first place.