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PBS: With ‘Trump’s Cabinet Accused of Sexual Misconduct,’ What of #MeToo?
Sunday’s PBS News Weekend program, guest hosted by White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez, resurfaced the sexual-abuse awareness #MeToo slogan to smear Donald Trump’s emerging picks to serve in his presidential Cabinet.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, with multiple nominees to Trump's Cabinet accused of sexual misconduct, we look at the future of the MeToo movement….President-elect Donald Trump has finished naming his top cabinet nominees, and there`s a noticeable pattern across some of them, allegations of sexual misconduct or assault. First, there's Trump's failed pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz. A woman testified to House investigators that when she was a 17-year-old minor, she had sex with Gaetz at a party….He withdrew his nomination last week, unable to secure enough support as more details surface. But he's not alone. Trump's picked to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017 in a California hotel room.
Even after Gaetz had dropped out of consideration to serve as Trump’s attorney general, sexual misconduct allegations against him were still top of the news at PBS. It’s reminiscent of how the press used Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) sexual scandal in the run-up to the 2006 congressional elections, never letting up even after Foley properly resigned his seat, using the story as a cudgel against Republican candidates.
Barron-Lopez eagerly pressed on to the next case.
Barron-Lopez: There's also Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump`s nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. He’s accused on multiple occasions of groping a 23-year-old woman who once worked for him as a live in nanny….
Finally, the media is interested in a sex scandal involving a Kennedy!
She segued to her guest, Deborah Tuerkheimer, law professor and author of Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers, to discuss “the future of the MeToo movement.”
Barron-Lopez: When the MeToo movement swept the country around 2017, it brought down giants of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, media, you name it. And it appeared to have changed society’s expectations when it came to addressing sexual abuse or assault. But now we’re seeing a second Trump administration being staffed with people accused of sexual misconduct. What signal does it send that these people may be filling some of the highest positions in government and leading the military or determining health policy?
What signal does it send? That the incoming nominee's choices still deserve a fair hearing?
Deborah Tuerkheimer: It sends a powerful signal that the work of the MeToo movement is woefully incomplete, that there’s a lot of work left to be done….But the structures of power that MeToo was taking aim at are still very much in place. And we’ve seen that, I think with particular intensity in the last few weeks, with the election of Donald Trump and then his selection of these men to fill his Cabinet.
This from the tax-funded news show that never mentioned assault allegations against “Second Gentleman” Doug Emhoff, husband of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, as outlined in the Daily Mail on October 3 under the headline “Kamala Harris's husband Doug Emhoff 'forcefully slapped ex-girlfriend for flirting with another man' in booze-fueled assault after date to star-studded gala.”
That article explained “Vice President Kamala Harris's husband assaulted his ex-girlfriend, three friends have told Dailymail.com. The Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, 59, allegedly struck the woman in the face so hard she spun around, while waiting in a valet line late at night after a May 2012 Cannes Film Festival event in France.”
Does PBS remember the Cuomos and Clintons accused of sexual harassment? Barron-Lopez widened her attack on the new Republican administration to encompass even indirect sexual-abuse allegations.
Barron-Lopez: It’s not just Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, or RFK Jr. Two other people Trump has named to his administration are facing allegations, Elon Musk and SpaceX were sued by former employees for creating a workplace that they said treated women as sexual objects. And then Linda McMahon, the nominee for Secretary of Education, is facing allegations of covering up sexual abuse toward children from her time at the WWE. So what does this say about how those in power handle allegations and abuse and how they may run the departments that they’re being nominated for?
This segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular.
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
PBS NewsHour
11/24/24
7:05:02 p.m. (ET)
Laura Barrón-López: President elect Donald Trump has finished naming his top cabinet nominees, and there's a noticeable pattern across some of them, allegations of sexual misconduct or assault. First, there's Trump's failed pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz. A woman testified to House investigators that when she was a 17-year-old minor, she had sex with Gaetz at a party.
Two other women testified that Gaetz paid them for sex multiple times. Gaetz has denied the allegations. He withdrew his nomination last week, unable to secure enough support as more details surface. But he's not alone. Trump's picked to lead the Defense Department Pete Hegseth is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017 in a California hotel room.
According to a police report released last week, the woman said Hegseth took her phone and blocked her exit. It was first reported to police by a nurse after a patient requested a sexual assault exam. Hegseth settled with the woman last year, but denies any wrongdoing. There's also Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.
He's accused on multiple occasions of groping a 23-year-old woman who once worked for him as a live in nanny. And Donald Trump himself has been publicly accused of sexual misconduct by two dozen women, including forcibly reaching under their skirts and kissing them without consent.
Last year, he was found liable in civil court of sexual abuse and defamation. Despite these sexual misconduct allegations, Trump will soon be in the Oval Office. And if confirmed, his nominees will be in top jobs across government, raising questions about the future of the MeToo movement.
Deborah Tuerkheimer is a law professor at Northwestern University and the author of "Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers." She joins me now.
Deborah, thanks for joining. When the MeToo movement swept the country around 2017, it brought down giants of Hollywood, Silicon Valley media, you name it. And it appeared to have changed society's expectations when it came to addressing sexual abuse or assault.
But now we're seeing a second Trump administration being staffed with people accused of sexual misconduct. What signal does it send that these people may be filling some of the highest positions in government and leading the military or determining health policy?
Deborah Tuerkheimer, Author, "Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers": Well, it sends a powerful signal that the work of the MeToo movement is woefully incomplete, that there's a lot of work left to be done.
The movement made a lot of progress. It surfaced the commonality of abuse. It got us talking about abuse. And for several high profile men, there was accountability. But the structures of power that MeToo was taking aim at are still very much in place. And we've seen that, I think with particular intensity in the last few weeks with the election of Donald Trump and then his selection of these men to fill his Cabinet.
Laura Barrón-López: Some Republican senators have called the allegations against Pete Hegseth the nominee for the Defense Department. They have called those allegations concerning. But the majority of Republicans have either been quiet or have dismissed those allegations as media reports. Why the insistence on confirming these picks, and why not choose other nominees?
Deborah Tuerkheimer: Well, I think what's going on at some deeper level is a contest between competing worldviews around male sexual entitlement. And Donald Trump has been very clear. We can think back to the release of the Access Hollywood tape and to his boast that he could do anything to the finding of civil liability. And Donald Trump is elected. The public, at least the public that elected him, did not feel that any of this was important enough to be disqualifying.
And he clearly feels enabled and emboldened to select individuals who face their own credible allegations. Really by way of reinforcing the idea that men in power have a range of entitlements, including sexual entitlements, and that there will be no impunity for this kind of abuse.
Laura Barrón-López: What does the current political situation say about how the MeToo movement is viewed right now? Is this a setback? Are the changes that movement ushered in jeopardy at all?
Deborah Tuerkheimer: Well, I think that the movement has been facing a backlash for some time, and we've seen various indications of that. Certainly the election of Donald Trump is another indication of some backlash, but the movement, it will move forward.
I think that the movement came about in part because of Donald Trump's on that Access Hollywood tape and then his subsequent election, and a sense on the part of so many survivors that it was time to end the impunity that men who abuse have enjoyed for so long. So this is a long pendulum swinging back and forth that we're seeing, and there's no reason to believe that this is where the pendulum stops swinging.
Laura Barrón-López: It's not just Donald Trump, Pete Higseth or RFK Jr. Two other people Trump has named to his administration are facing allegations. Elon Musk and SpaceX were sued by former employees for creating a workplace that they said treated women as sexual objects. And then Linda McMahon, the nominee for Secretary of Education, is facing allegations of covering up sexual abuse toward children from her time at the WWE. So what does this say about how those in power handle allegations and abuse and how they may run the departments that they're being nominated for?
Deborah Tuerkheimer: Well, the amount of abuse that goes on in our society goes on because there are structures that tolerate it. And so the examples that you cite are illustrations of this. And it is absolutely a powerful and frankly, devastating message to survivors and those who care about them when individuals are heading departments that are charged with ferreting out just this kind of abuse. And those individuals have themselves run afoul of these rules and norms that the MeToo movement is trying to promote and trying to reinforce.
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