TRUMP: The word is 'assault'

Whether by grown men in a private conversation on a bus, by a professor in a class on women’s studies, by a pre-teen on a playground, or by comic with an off-color joke, the words Donald Trump used in 2005 would describe sexual assault. The context of the situation and the intent of the descriptions matter in whether you feel they are reasonably or excusably used. But Trump’s words still describe him perpetrating sexual assault, real or fictitious. Despite his experience with fame and the obvious preparation for an interview, what he undoubtedly thought was a private conversation was overheard and is thus subject to people’s interpretations. But his own words still describe him perpetrating sexual assault.

Trump and his “surrogates” continually try to shift focus to the excusability of the words because it was a private conversation. But the words still describe sexual assault. A news reporter recently asked Mike Pence directly, “Do you believe the words Trump used describe sexual assault?” The reporter effectively gave Pence a pass when he side-stepped the question with the tired, “it was locker room talk.” He didn’t describe a belief, he gave an excuse. Hearing someone admit that the words were precisely about sexual assault is important if we are to even begin considering the situation in which they were spoken, and the character of the person speaking them.

PETER NEIRINCKX

Coeur d’Alene