CNN host Jake Tapper blasted President Donald Trump’s “rank hypocrisy” in attacking Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) for sexual misconduct even as the president has been accused of much the same thing by at least a dozen women.
“People in glass White Houses shouldn’t throw stones,” Tapper said Friday, referring to the president’s “own obvious vulnerabilities.”
“In Trump’s world, we’re supposed to believe the very compelling claims of Leeann Tweeden,” Tapper said, referring to Franken’s accuser. “But we are not supposed to believe ... at least 12 women who have brought forward claims” against Trump involving behavior from the 1980s to the 2000s.
Tapper ticked off a list of those accusations, from sexual harassment to misconduct to assault, including aggressive nonconsensual kisses and groping. He also played a clip of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape on which Trump boasted that he “just starts kissing” women he’s attracted to. The future president preened that as the star of a reality TV show, “you can do anything ... even grab ’em by the pussy.”
“The president says the Al Franken photo is really bad. Yeah, it is,” Tapper conceded of the picture of the then-comedian groping a sleeping woman. “So is that ‘Access Hollywood’ tape.”
When the accusations of sexual misconduct by Trump emerged during the presidential campaign, the candidate declared that “every woman lied ... total fabrication.” He even vowed that “all of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”
“Needless to say,” Tapper noted, “President Trump has filed exactly zero lawsuits against any of his accusers.”
One court action has been filed by accuser Summer Zervos, who is suing Trump for defamation for calling her a liar. Zervos, a former “Apprentice” contestant, has accused him of forcibly kissing and groping her.
The president has also refused to comment on whether he believes the women who have accused Roy Moore, the GOP’s Alabama Senate candidate, of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers and Moore was in his 30s.
But Trump blasted Franken in a tweet Thursday, calling him “Al Frankenstien.” Twitter users quickly fired back, accusing Trump of hypocrisy.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said the difference between the Franken accusations and the Trump accusations is that Franken “has admitted wrongdoing, and the president has not.”