It looks like President Trump backed himself into a dangerous corner this morning with his tweet bemoaning the lack of due process for men facing sexual assault allegations.
Trump tweeted this morning after his callous comments yesterday responding to the news of the departure of Rob Porter, the White House Staff Secretary who left after the allegations of abuse made by both his ex-wives surfaced. In his remarks, he lamented Porter’s fate and wished him well without ever condemning domestic violence or even mentioning Porter’s victims at all.
His tweet this morning was even worse.
Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused – life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018
Among those sickened by this latest expression of misogyny from the President was Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who saw the tweet and responded with a brilliant idea that will have Trump regretting the moment he picked up his phone to tweet out his sexist message.
The lives of survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse are being shattered every day. If he wants due process for the over dozen sexual assault allegations against him, let’s have Congressional hearings tomorrow. I would support that and my colleagues should too.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) February 10, 2018
With 19 women having accused President Trump of sexual assault, misconduct, and harassment, that’s a lot of due process to accomplish. Trump and his lawyers have used every trick in the book including intimidation, payoffs, and delaying tactics to prevent any of these women from receiving the due process that their allegations deserve.
Now that Gillibrand has called his bluff with a call for Congressional hearings, let’s see how many of Trump’s Republican defenders in Congress will heed his call for due process. The women who have accused him are all available to testify, so let’s see if the Liar-in-Chief has the guts to deny their accusations to their faces.
At the very least, a Congressional hearing on Trump’s treatment of women will force Republicans to go on record as either believing the women’s accusations or as believing a President with an unblemished record of lying through his teeth.
With so little credibility left in his presidency, Trump and his Republican cronies will have a hard time surviving hearings like this, which is why the Republican leadership in Congress will never ever allow them to take place.
As a brilliant strategic move, however, Senator Gillibrand’s call for due process is both wiley and an effective political action that women across the country should be applauding.
