I notice a tiny, almost infinitesimal, difference in the treatment of women who accuse Republican presidents of sexual misconduct compared to women who accuse Democrats.
See if you can spot the difference.
Stormy Daniels is the stripper and porn star who tried to extort Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2016, threatening to tell the tabloids they’d had sex, a claim he denies. Whether Trump’s description of his extortion payment to Daniels as a “legal expense” constituted a criminal violation of the federal campaign finance laws is a central element of New York’s prosecution of Trump.
The truth of Daniels’ supposed sex romp with Trump is utterly irrelevant to the criminal charge, but it’s humiliating to Trump, so the prosecutors put her on the stand for hours, and the media covered her testimony like it was the 9/11 attack.
The article continued, “Daniels, for her part, was unapologetic: She is a woman who proudly makes pornography for a living and doesn’t believe it hurts her credibility one bit.”
She’s truly a role model for little girls.
Here are some more admiring headlines about the porn star from the newspaper of record:
Stormy Daniels Fights Back
Stormy Daniels Delivers Intense Testimony
Stormy Daniels Stood Up Well to the Taunts of Trump’s Lawyer
It is impossible to imagine such stout defenses being put up for any of the legion of women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct — all truthfully, as we now know from the mountains of evidence, including his own (eventual) admission, as well as his DNA.
After Gennifer Flowers went public about her affair with Clinton, James Carville said of her, “If you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find.”
No headline: “Gennifer Flowers Stood Up Well to the Taunts of Clinton Aide”
Gov. Ann Richards of Texas couldn’t stop demeaning Flowers, cackling about her stupidity, saying she didn’t know how to spell, and sneering that her only claim to fame was that she’d had a 12-year affair with a married man. (Which kind of sounds like that double standard noted by USA Today’s experts.)
No headline: “Gennifer Flowers Will Not Be Shamed”
When Paula Jones held a press conference to accuse Clinton of groping her and asking her to perform oral sex on him, The Washington Post’s Lloyd Grove ridiculed the event as “yet another ascension of Mount Bimbo.”
How about, “Paula Jones Delivers Intense Press Conference”?
Clinton’s lawyer, Bob Bennett, called Jones’ claim “tabloid trash.”
But no headline, “Lawyer Calls Jones Suit ‘Tabloid Trash.’ She Replies: ‘Not Unlike Mr. Clinton”
The Times’ Anthony Lewis said Jones’ lawsuit against Clinton “was a worthless suit, reeking of politics. Most Americans thought just that.”
How about a headline, “Paula Jones Fights Back”?