Last week, I wrote a post about Kevin McCarthy’s comparison of Republicans and Democrats on the Platner allegations, Some Unreality on Display, wherein McCarthy said the following:
…one thing I know about Republicans is when we had a very bad candidate, we didn’t vote for that person. We walked away.
To go all academic on the matter: this is an empirically falsifiable statement, as I noted in the previous post. I also need to add another recent example, Andrew Cuomo, who failed to secure the Democratic nomination for Mayor of NYC due to allegations of creating a sexually hostile work environment.
This is not to play partisan “gotcha,” nor to assert that Democrats have had no problems in this area, but to note that one party is trying to address these kinds of problems, while the other party is led by a man who was the subject of this CBS News headline this week: E. Jean Carroll receives $5.62 million payment from Trump in sex abuse and defamation case after yearslong wait.
Indeed, one could make a long list of allegations against Trump, not to mention a list of statements (like the one screencapped above) that assert his sexual predations. So I did (specifically, I used Claude to generate these tables, and the sourcing can be found at the end of the post).
Here’s a list of accusations.
| Accuser | Alleged Year | Nature of Allegation | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ivana Trump (first wife) | 1989 (divorce deposition) | Alleged a sexual assault during their marriage; she later said the incident, while real to her at the time, should not be understood as “rape” in a criminal sense and called the story without merit in 2015 | NPR, Axios |
| Jill Harth | 1992–1993 | Alleged Trump groped her under a table at a 1992 dinner and, in January 1993, pushed her against a wall and put his hands on her while trying to lift her dress at Mar-a-Lago Time | TIME |
| Kristin Anderson | early 1990s | Alleged Trump groped her beneath her skirt at a Manhattan nightclub Wikipedia | Wikipedia/Axios |
| Lisa Boyne | mid-1990s | Alleged that at a dinner, Trump insisted women walk on top of his table while he looked underneath their skirts Axios | Axios |
| Jessica Leeds | 1980 (surfaced 2016) | Alleged Trump touched her breasts and attempted to put his hand up her skirt on an airplane | NPR |
| Temple Taggart McDowell | 1997 | Alleged Trump kissed her on the lips twice while she represented Utah in the Miss USA pageant Time | TIME |
| Mariah Billado & other pageant contestants | 1997 | Alleged Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants were changing, making a dismissive remark Time | TIME/BuzzFeed |
| Karena Virginia | 1998 | Alleged Trump touched her breast while she waited for a car outside the U.S. Open Axios | Axios |
| Amy Dorris | 1997 | Alleged Trump groped her and forced his tongue into her mouth at the U.S. Open Axios | Axios/The Guardian |
| Cassandra Searles (Miss Washington USA) | 2013 | Alleged Trump inspected contestants inappropriately and made comments about their appearance | ABC News |
| Ninni Laaksonen (former Miss Finland) | c. 2006 | Alleged Trump grabbed her buttocks before a Late Show appearance with other Miss Universe contestants Time | TIME |
| Jessica Drake | 2006 | Alleged Trump kissed her and two other women without consent at a golf tournament hotel suite ABC News | ABC News/NPR |
| Natasha Stoynoff | 2005 | Alleged Trump forcibly kissed her while she was on assignment for a People magazine interview at Mar-a-Lago | TIME |
| Summer Zervos | 2007 (surfaced 2016) | Alleged unwanted sexual advances; later sued Trump for defamation after he called her a liar | ABC News |
| Cathy Heller | 1997 | Alleged Trump forcibly kissed her at a Mar-a-Lago Mother’s Day brunch | Multiple outlets |
| Jennifer Murphy | 2005 | Alleged Trump kissed her on the lips after a job interview | Multiple outlets |
| Rachel Crooks | 2005 | Alleged Trump kissed her on the mouth without consent outside an elevator at Trump Tower | Multiple outlets |
| Jill Zenoff / other pageant staff | 1990s | Alleged inappropriate comments/conduct related to pageant duties | HuffPost |
| Bridget Sullivan (Miss New Hampshire USA) | c. 2000s | Alleged Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants were undressed | HuffPost |
| Mindy McGillivray | 2003 | Alleged Trump groped her at Mar-a-Lago during a concert | Multiple outlets |
| Tasha Dixon (Miss Arizona) | 2001 | Alleged Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants changed | Multiple outlets |
| Alva Johnson | early 2000s | Alleged Trump forcibly kissed her and grabbed her at a Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve party, an allegation first revealed in the book “All the President’s Women” HuffPost | HuffPost |
| E. Jean Carroll | mid-1990s | Alleged Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room. Women’s Agenda This is the only case to reach a jury verdict: a 2023 jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding $5 million, and a 2024 trial found him liable for additional defamation, ordering $83.3 million more Wikipedia | Wikipedia/Axios |
| Stacey Williams | 1993 | Alleged Trump groped her while Jeffrey Epstein watched, becoming the 27th woman to make such an accusation Wikipedia | Wikipedia/Axios |
Here’s a list of statements.
| Context | What He Said/Described | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 Access Hollywood tape | Caught on a hot mic, Trump described being drawn to kissing women without waiting for permission and bragged that his celebrity status let him grab women’s genitals without consequence | Wikipedia, multiple outlets |
| The View, 2006 | While appearing alongside his daughter Ivanka, Trump said that if she weren’t his daughter he’d perhaps be dating her, prompting the hosts to call the remark strange | Snopes, Seattle Times |
| Howard Stern interviews, various years | Over roughly 17 years of appearances, Trump discussed Ivanka’s physique with Stern, agreed with a crude physical assessment of her, and discussed sex with women on their periods, threesomes, and cutting off relationships with women once they turned 35 | CNN |
| Howard Stern, 2005 (pageant backstage access) | Trump described letting himself into pageant contestants’ dressing rooms while they were undressed because he owned the pageant, framing it as an “inspection,” and said he could get away with it | The Hill, CBS News, ABC News |
| Howard Stern, on sex with contestants | When asked whether he’d ever slept with a pageant contestant, Trump initially declined to answer, then joked that as the pageant owner it might be his “obligation” | CBS News, Snopes |
| Miss Vermont Teen USA account, 1997 | Contestant Mariah Billado recalled Trump walking into the dressing room while teenagers (some as young as 15) were changing, reportedly telling them not to worry because he’d seen it all before | Wikipedia, Rolling Stone |
| Miss Arizona account, 2001 | Tasha Dixon said Trump walked into a dress rehearsal while contestants were half-naked, and that staff encouraged the women to fawn over him | ABC News |
| On judging pageant contestants’ looks | Miss California Carrie Prejean recalled Trump inspecting contestants and having them rate each other’s appearance aloud | Rolling Stone |
| Rolling Stone interview, 2015 | Trump praised Ivanka’s looks and remarked that if he weren’t married — and weren’t her father — he might pursue her | Seattle Times |
| White House staff era (per Miles Taylor’s book) | Former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor wrote that aides described Trump commenting on Ivanka’s body and speculating about sex with her, prompting then-chief-of-staff John Kelly to remind him she was his daughter | Seattle Times |
| On Hillary Clinton, 2016 campaign era | Trump made a public jab suggesting that if Clinton couldn’t satisfy her husband, she couldn’t satisfy the country | GSU Library archive |
| General commentary on women’s appearance | Trump has a long-documented history of rating women’s bodies publicly and making comments about which women he found sexually attractive, including remarks about pageant contestants’ figures versus their intelligence or education | Rolling Stone, CNN |
And yes, both lists are ridiculously long, which makes a point in and of itself.
Speaking of the sitting president, one of the Bulwark podcasts added some noteworthy items to his resume of shame. In addition to his own long list of sexual misconduct allegations and statements is the fact that he has a long history of defending others accused of sexual misconduct.
This is in order of when they are mentioned in the video (dates are when Trump defended the person in question), if indicated in the video. It is worth noting that many were during his time in politics.
- Herman Cain (2011)
- Roy Moore (December 8, 2017)
- Roger Ailes (2016)
- Michael Jackson (2009)
- Mike Tyson (1992)
- Diddy (2025)
- Bill O’Reilly
Plus, he wished Ghislaine Maxwell “well” more than once (so, kudos for supporting a woman?), and he nominated Pete Hegseth and was going to nominate Matt Gaetz. RFK, Jr.’s bio in this area isn’t great, either.
Odd for a guy not known for his empathy to have compassion on this topic.
The Moore date is interesting because, despite the fact that many Republicans want to use Moore as an example of their morality on this topic. Trump was asking voters to vote for Moore in the clip provided four days before the election. The allegations had been deeply reported by that point in time. Sure, Moore lost, and yes, then Alabama Senator Richard Shelby stated he wouldn’t vote for Moore, but the party, as a whole, did not abandon him. He only lost by roughly a 1.6% of the vote.
But, sure, McCarthy, Republicans have the moral high ground.
In addition to the obvious problem with the main leader of the GOP at the moment, the way in which the Platner story has allowed the misogyny in the MAGA-supporting manosphere to come to the fore. For example, Amanda Marcotte at Slate: Why MAGA influencers are wooing Graham Platner’s male fans.
“Most every guy I know did what he’s being accused of at one point or another with their girlfriend at some point after a night of drinking,” complained the Donald Trump-loving comedian Adam Carolla on Sunday’s episode of his eponymous podcast. “It’s basically like: I’m drunk, I’m horny, I weigh 50 pounds more than you, we’re gonna have sex, it’s not really rape because we sleep in the same bed.”
[…]
Right-wing dirty trickster Christopher Rufo released an “emergency podcast” last week and opened with a provocative question: “Did Graham Platner rape Jennifer Racicot, or did the political establishment rape Graham Platner?”
[…]
Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist and Trump’s one-time dining companion, ridiculed Racicot’s story by saying it’s not rape just because you say “stop, stop, I don’t feel like it.” Because sometimes, he explained, people “get drunk and want to have sex.” Fuentes added, “If it were a true rape, she would go to the cops.” (In reality, researchers have long established that many victims don’t report precisely because they don’t want to face the abuse and disbelief Racicot is now receiving.)
Marcotte does note some left-leaners who made some misogynistic comments of their own:
“Graham Platner represents a rejection of Dem HR lady politics,” presumed progressive Matt Stoller wrote in a now-deleted X post a few weeks ago.
Left-wing journalist Ken Klippenstein wrote a blog post in early June celebrating Platner for ending the “era of smoothgroin politicians.”
Speaking of Nick Fuentes, here’s an additional example of his deep misogyny not linked to Platner.
But, you know, we need to worry about Sharia Law…
I know all of this sounds so over-the-top that it is easy to want to put it in the “kook” pile and move on. Fuentes has over a million followers on Twitter, and his livestreams garner similar numbers. This is small in the grand scheme of things, but not nothing, either. And all of this is one piece of a broader, disturbing puzzle.
For example, let’s return to the topic of Doug Wilson (see, e.g., here and here), who also figures in the growing GOP Expanded Misogyny Universe. From a recent interview with NPR:
FADEL: Now, you’ve called for repealing women’s right to vote, which is protected by the 19th Amendment.
WILSON: Right.
FADEL: Why?
WILSON: Because it’s a good idea (laughter). No.
FADEL: A lot of women wouldn’t think so.
WILSON: Yeah. A lot of women wouldn’t agree. Right. What I envision is a system we have practiced in our church here for four decades, and that is household voting in our polity, in our church system. About 7% of the votes are cast by women because we have a number of women who are heads of their households.
FADEL: So for example, I’m a woman who’s not married, who doesn’t have children and who is Muslim. So in a future Christian theocracy, where the 19th Amendment is repealed, what is my role in public life? Do I get to vote? Do I get to run for office?
WILSON: No, you wouldn’t hold office because you couldn’t vow to uphold the Christian Constitution. And whether you voted or not would have nothing to do with whether you are a woman or not. Whether you voted would be…
FADEL: If I’m the head of my household.
WILSON: If you were head of the household and Christian, you would vote.
FADEL: And if I’m head of the household and not Christian?
WILSON: Then that would depend probably on the state.
FADEL: How do you actually get, though, to a Christian theocracy?
WILSON: Yeah, the mechanism…
FADEL: Is it courts?
WILSON: Yeah.
FADEL: Is it schools? Is it violence?
WILSON: No, it’s not violent – not violence. It is preaching the gospel, planting churches, starting classical Christian schools, working your tail off, basically.
FADEL: But you would have to change portions of the Constitution to become a theocracy.
WILSON: Actually, no.
FADEL: I mean, a lot of constitutional scholars would disagree with you.
WILSON: Yeah. And I disagree with them.
And for the broader context of his view of the relationship between man and woman, here’s a quote from his 1976 book, Fidelity: What it Means to Be a One Woman Man.
When we quarrel with the way the world is, we find that the world has ways of getting back at us. In other words, however we try, the sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party. A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts. This is of course offensive to all egalitarians, and so our culture has rebelled against the concept of authority and submission in marriage. This means that we have sought to suppress the concepts of authority and submission.
So, what’s the point? Did MAGA create all this misogyny? No, but it has allowed it to come out from the shadows. It has become socially acceptable to talk about it in some quarters. And we are certainly seeing it manifest in real policy ways. Note this (highly understated, in my view) recent NYT headline: Opportunities Narrow for Women as Hegseth Blocks More Promotions, and this one from this week in the Military Times: Hegseth ordered a new study of women in combat. Critics say it’s built to reach one conclusion. I have already noted his concern with the testosterone levels of the troops.
I am sure it was merit, and merit alone, that has led to the current cabinet being 15 men and 3 women (and only one Black member).
While I do not think that we are going to see a serious move to repeal the 19th Amendment, I think it is noteworthy that the topic has now moved from the fringes into being the topic of discussion in an NPR interview because the pastor who is promoting the subject has influence with the Secretary of Defense. I would note that 15 years ago, maybe even just two years ago, the notion that SCOTUS would be a 5-4 split on whether the birthright citizenship clause means what it says would have been a laughable proposition.
There is a faction of our politics that does not take seriously the proposition that all human beings are equal in fundamental ways. They do not see dark-skinned people as equal to whites, and they don’t think men and women are equals (let alone the complexities of gender and sexuality). They think that one set of religious views ought to legally be superior to others.
It is empirically the case that the political party that is supporting and promoting that faction and, indeed, is led by that faction is the Republican Party. This is not a partisan statement; it is simply the situation in which we find ourselves. And Kevin McCarthy’s (or anybody else’s) protestations simply do not change the reality of the situation.
Indeed, if McCarthy wants to put his money where his mouth is, he has an opportunity in the Buckeye State. Perhaps he could read up on in the Ohio Capital Journal: Ohio Congressman Max Miller is being sued amid domestic violence allegations.
Sourcing for the allegations table:
Comprehensive compilation articles (cover most/all names in the table):
- Wikipedia — Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations
- TIME — These Are the Women Who Have Accused President Trump of Sexual Misconduct
- NPR — Here’s The List Of Women Who Accused Donald Trump Of Sexual Misconduct
- ABC News — List of Trump’s accusers and their allegations of sexual misconduct
- HuffPost — A Running List Of The Women Who’ve Accused Donald Trump Of Sexual Misconduct
- Washington Post — President Trump and accusations of sexual misconduct: The complete list
- Business Insider — The 26 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct
- Axios — White House says Trump accusers’ “false claims” are politically motivated
E. Jean Carroll case specifically:
- Wikipedia — E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump
Sourcing for the statements table:
Access Hollywood tape:
- Wikipedia — Access Hollywood tape
“The View” (2006) — “if she weren’t my daughter” comment:
- Snopes — Trump Once Said He Would Date Ivanka If She Wasn’t His Daughter?
- Today.com/AP — Trump jokes that he’d date daughter
Howard Stern interviews (17-year archive, Ivanka’s physique, sex topics):
Howard Stern — pageant dressing-room access & “obligation” comment:
- The Hill — Howard Stern tells Letterman about the time Trump called Ivanka ‘a 10’
- CBS News — Ivanka Trump “liked” tweet about her dad saying it’s OK to call her a “piece of a**”
Miss Vermont Teen USA / pageant dressing room accounts:
- Wikipedia — Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations
- Rolling Stone — search their pageant-contestant coverage archive (no single stable URL retrieved this session)
Miss Arizona (Tasha Dixon) account:
- ABC News — covered within the comprehensive accusers list
Rolling Stone interview (2015) and general pageant commentary:
White House staff era (Miles Taylor’s book, John Kelly rebuke):
- Seattle Times — Trump’s lewd talk about daughter Ivanka in front of White House staff recalled in new book
- Newsweek — Exclusive: Trump Made Shocking Comments About Ivanka, Says Ex-Staffer
Fact-check on the uncorroborated “more attracted to daughter than wife” quote:
