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Once upon a time, publicly declaring to use the military to round up your enemies, multiple incidents of plagiarism and model groping — in front of a convicted sex offender — would have been enough to upend a presidential campaign, if not destroy it.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton believed Wikileaks’ release of her private emails played a major role in her 2016 defeat. Four years earlier, a tape showing Mitt Romney dismissed 47 percent of the electorate as “dependent on the government” who “believe they are victims” and will vote for President Barack Obama “no matter what” did incalculable damage to his campaign, the 2012 GOP nominee later acknowledged.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, participates in a town hall at the Crown Center Arena on October 4, 2024, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
But with the country’s political divide deepening, have voters become immune to such last-minute, unexpected scandals? Will this year’s October surprises have any impact on the upcoming election?
It seems unlikely, at least when Donald Trump is in the crosshairs. Former model Stacey Williams, now 53, entered the fray on Wednesday, alleging Trump attacked her during a 1993 encounter at the Trump Tower while notorious accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein watched.
The former president has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women over the years, and in 2023, he was found liable for sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room. Though ordered to pay her $5 million in damages, the political cost to Trump was minimal. (The 45th president would go on to compound his financial liability by calling Carroll a liar after the trial, leading her to sue him for defamation again and win an $83.3 damage award from a jury this past January.)
Likewise, this new accusation was met with skepticism, if not derision, by the MAGA faithful, evidenced by the hashtag #KamalaGropedMe, among others.
“No one believes it that isn’t a partisan Democrat already,” wrote one Trump supporter on X. “People have decided for Trump, this will only enrage our side to get out and vote in even bigger numbers.”
Added another, “Don’t care still voting Trump.”
Williams said she was introduced to Trump by Epstein in 1992. Roughly one year later, Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019 after being convicted of multiple sexual offenses, suggested they pay their mutual friend a visit. The encounter with Trump quickly turned sexual, Williams alleges.
“She said he put his hands ‘all over my breasts’ as well as her waist and her buttocks,” The Guardian reports. “She said she froze because she was ‘deeply confused’ about what was happening. At the same time, she said she believed she saw (Trump and Epstein) smiling at each other.”
Williams also shared her experience on a call Monday organized by the group Survivors4Harris, which included actor Ashley Judd and lawyer Anita Hill.
Fox News contributor Joe Concha pointed out that the incident happened 31 years ago and that it is impossible to “prove or disprove.”
“Trump’s run for president twice before, yet this never came out,” Concha wrote on X. “This was pitched to multiple reporters — even some very friendly to Kamala — and only a British tabloid took the bait. This is laughable. The panic is real.”
Concha was reminded by one commenter that Trump has admitted to behavior similar to what Williams describes, referencing the “Access Hollywood” recording of Trump boasting about groping women and how he would “grab them by the p***y.”
“Joe, you realize that Trump is on tape bragging about groping women without asking for their permission, right?”
That recording, released on Oct. 7, 2016, ultimately did not dissuade enough voters from supporting him in the election the next month.
MAGA hypocrisy caught the attention of another commenter on X” “Huh. Just like that, conservative Twitter is cool with Epstein parties. On brand.”
While Trump has yet to comment on Williams’ accusation, campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a swift denial.
“It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign,” Leavitt said in a statement.
Williams says that Trump sent her agent a postcard following the attack. It showed an aerial view of Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach residence, with a handwritten note, “Stacey – Your home away from home. Love Donald.”
Williams told The Guardian the incident “made me feel so disgusting, and I remember being so utterly confused.”
She said she felt she was part of a “twisted game” involving Trump and Epstein.
“I felt shame and disgust and as we went our separate ways,” she said, remembering the aftermath of the alleged attack. “I felt this sensation of revisiting it while the hands were all over me. And I had this horrible pit in my stomach that it was somehow orchestrated. I felt like a piece of meat.”
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