Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Opinion Today: Remember the women who accused Trump?

The news cycle has moved on, but they're making another effort to be heard.
Opinion Today

October 1, 2024

Author Headshot

By Jessica Bennett

Ms Bennett is a contributing editor in Opinion who writes on gender, politics and culture

They call themselves the Sisterhood of the Strange Sorority. There are 19 or 26 or 67 of them, depending on how you count. They are the women who accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct — which he has denied — and they share an unusual bond.

Remember, back in 2016, when it seemed like these women's stories might matter? There was a time, shortly after the "Access Hollywood" tape surfaced, when members of Trump's own party were calling for him to drop out of the race. In one poll, conducted a few weeks before that election, more than seven in 10 Americans — including 42 percent of Republican voters — said they believed the women.

But then something strange happened. The words "another new accuser" began to sound like background noise. The women's names became numbers, and then the numbers started to get confusing. What exactly constituted "misconduct"? Did it count if he was merely ogling? How was the public supposed to understand which stories were corroborated by journalists, by lawyers or by nobody at all?

With the exception of E. Jean Carroll, who won millions in court after Trump denied assaulting her, most of these women have faded from public view. The news cycle has moved on to more pressing realities — Trump's other legal troubles; abortion; war — and they too have tried to move on with their lives.

Kind of.

Recently, I spent time with the members of Strange Sorority, as they made one last effort to be heard.

Read more here:

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