"I got groped at a Trump rally" are words I thought would never come out of my mouth, but it’s 2016, so I guess it’s official evidence that nothing matters anymore.
In an attempt to understand the women who continue to support Donald Trump, despite him being accused of sexually harassing or assaulting 17 women and having a history of deep-seated sexism, I attended a rally in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, to hear from the female supporters still standing by him.
"Seven out of 10 women probably have an unfavorable view of a lot of men," one woman told me as I shared Trump’s high unfavorable numbers with her. Although she didn’t make excuses for his behavior, she said she was more interested in conversations about the candidate’s "policies."
The handful of women (and men) I interviewed presented a wide variety of reasons they backed the Republican nominee, ranging from the way he’s raised powerful, assertive daughters to the promotion of women within his businesses. Although they all had different reasons to support him, they all shared a certain nonchalance toward the sexual assault accusations against him. Given that hostility toward women predicts support for Trump, perhaps it’s unsurprising this wasn’t an issue big enough to sway these voters away.
The Trump supporter who pinched my rump (she also did it to a random stranger and my camera operator) insisted that groping is "all in fun" and unfairly taken seriously when men are the perpetuators. "If I were a man, I would be in jail today," she explained. When I asked if the man she grabbed minded, she said he told her he welcomed more women doing it. "That’s my point," she smiled with satisfaction.
So what does justice look like in Trump’s America? I guess one version is a country where men and women have an equal right to grope.
