Twitter is awash with anti-Trump critics attempting to dunk on the president following a decades-old allegation that he raped a magazine columnist inside a department store dressing room, but the president’s supporters were quick to express a healthy dose of skepticism.
Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, 75, accused President Donald Trump of raping her inside the dressing room of a Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990’s, but told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell that she decided not to press charges because it would be “disrespectful to the women who are down on the border who are being raped around the clock down there without any protection.”
A senior White House official called Carroll’s claim a “completely false and unrealistic story” that was “created simply to make the president look bad,” and the president himself said there is “zero evidence” and that her upcoming book “should be sold in the fiction section.”
“No pictures?” the statement continued. “No surveillance? No video? No reports? No sales attendants around?? I would like to thank Bergdorf Goodman for confirming they have no video footage of any such incident, because it never happened. False accusations diminish the severity of real assault. All should condemn false accusations and any actual assault in the strongest possible terms.” (RELATED: OPINION: Key Details Of Dr. Ford’s Testimony Are Contradicted By Common Sense)
Predictably, anti-Trump Twitter users pounced on the allegations to attack the president, particularly seizing on a decades-old picture of Trump, Carroll, and others and assuming the president and billionaire businessman would remember everyone he has ever met:
Trump’s statement on E. Jean Carroll and the alleged rape: “never met this person.”
And yet here’s a picture of them together. pic.twitter.com/MZmBBGfouB
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) June 22, 2019
The White House today issued a statement from President Trump denying that he ever met E. Jean Carroll in his life. Here’s the @NYMag photo of the two of them talking in 1987 pic.twitter.com/RqVH4Qe2mx
— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 21, 2019
People criticizing E. Jean Carroll for processing her rape on her own time can go to hell. As if all of us didn’t watch Brett Kavanaugh be credibly accused of rape and sexual assault last year and go on to be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
— Charlotte Clymer????️???? (@cmclymer) June 21, 2019
Trump issued a statement denying that he ever met E. Jean Carroll. Here is a photograph of them together: pic.twitter.com/2ipiefnvxh
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) June 21, 2019
Call me crazy, but President Accused of Rape By Well Known Writer seems like the very definition of news? It’s somewhat odd to me that it is not being covered in many places.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 21, 2019
Others, however, questioned Carroll’s claim:
E Jean Carroll is trying to sell books. She says she can’t remember what YEAR the supposed rape occurred & IF cameras caught it, it’d probably look sexy (not like a rape) and added you probably wouldn’t see him unzip his pants. Timed perfectly for book release. Ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/ATfsnhuKpf
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 21, 2019
Hillary Clinton supporting ultra-femanist liberal E. Jean Carroll just made a sexual assault claim against President Trump.
20 years later and right before an upcoming election
The American people know better than to believe fraudulent claims from discredited extremist liberals pic.twitter.com/HRFpvsHCdv
— Michael Coudrey (@MichaelCoudrey) June 22, 2019
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? https://t.co/GF7iUaBBGP
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) June 22, 2019
I believe this 0%. https://t.co/9U4k9an5jW
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) June 21, 2019
Maybe it’s just me, but I find rape accusations to be 1000000x more credible when they aren’t attached to book sales.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) June 22, 2019