“Another new accuser,” the most depressing three-word combination in the English language of late, is getting more play today, as the 13th woman to accuse Donald Trump of sexual misconduct has come forward.
Flanked by attorney Gloria Allred in the London Hotel in New York, 45-year-old yoga instructor Karena Virginia fought back tears as she described the fear she felt in coming forward, for herself and her family. In a nod to last night’s presidential debate, she remarked before describing the incident that she’d been told Trump would likely think of her as “another nasty woman.”
Virginia alleges that she was waiting for a car to take her home from the 1998 U.S. Open in Queens when Donald Trump lecherously glared at her and made comments about her appearance to his male companions. Then he allegedly grabbed her right arm and made contact with her right breast.
“I flinched,” Virginia said. “He said: ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ I felt intimidated and powerless. I said yes.”
Virginia, who bears a slight passing resemblance to Trump’s wife Melania, said that the incident left her feeling embarrassed and that she blamed herself for what he did to her. She altered the way she dressed for years afterward, she said, opting for shawls and longer dresses.
“Your random moment of sexual pleasure came at my expense and affected me greatly,” Virginia added, before paraphrasing that quote from Maya Angelou that’s become a sort of rallying cry for anti-Trump punditry: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them; the first time.” (She used the same quote in a now-not-so-cryptic Facebook post earlier this month.)
Allred explained that Virginia’s experience with Trump shows how the embattled businessman-cum-politician seems to select his victims completely at random.
“Some of the women, including the woman who is here today, had an encounter with Mr. Trump that appeared to be strictly by chance,” she said. “Mr. Trump allegedly felt that whether on an airplane or seeing a woman waiting for a car that he had the absolute right to do whatever he wanted to because, after all, he is a celebrity.”
Allred, who is a vocal Hillary Clinton supporter, denied collusion with the Clinton campaign over this or the other accuser who sought her counsel. Allred last week represented Summer Zervos, who claims Trump tried to have sex with her when she sought a job.
The grimmest act in this circus of an election year has been the parade of sexual-abuse allegations against Trump and his campaign’s reciprocal grasping at Bill Clinton’s alleged sexual misconduct.
On Wednesday, Breitbart published an interview with a woman who accused the former president of sexually assaulting her in 1980. (Trump campaign CEO Stephen Bannon was Breitbart’s chairman.) Trump brought three women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct to the second presidential debate, attempting to seat them in his family box before debate officials said no.
It’s all been a desperate effort to combat the avalanche of women who’ve come forward to accuse Trump ever since The Washington Post published video of him bragging about how easy it is for him to sexually assault women, how he “just starts kissing them” and can “grab them by the pussy.” In response, Trump has made fun of his accusers’ looks on the stump, as though he’d only grope somebody if he meant it as a compliment.
The Trump campaign has responded to the new accusation, releasing a statement attributed to Deputy Communications Director Jessica Ditto. "Discredited political operative Gloria Allred, in another coordinated, publicity seeking attack with the Clinton campaign, will stop at nothing to smear Mr. Trump. Give me a break. Voters are tired of these circus-like antics and reject these fictional stories and the clear efforts to benefit Hillary Clinton." [sic]
Virginia may not be the last Trump accuser to come forward, but as he fades spectacularly in the polls, the nation’s security may no longer rely on previously anonymous women outing themselves. But this has been a weird year. Anything could happen.