October 20, 2016 4:40 PM

The most painful misrepresentation in Donald Trump’s largely lie-based campaign did not emerge until after the release of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump described his way of interacting with women to whom he’s attracted: pushing himself on them physically, without obtaining consent. “I just start kissing them,” he bragged, talking to Billy Bush, the show’s host. “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” At the second Presidential debate, Anderson Cooper pointed out to Trump that he was describing sexual assault, and pressed him on the obvious question: Had he actually ever done the things he bragged about? No, Trump said—and he has continued to stick to this answer, despite the fact that twenty women have now come forward by name with firsthand stories about Trump’s predatory behavior—thirteen of them within just the past two weeks.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll recently asked respondents whether they believed that Trump “probably has or has not made unwanted sexual advances toward women.” Sixty-eight per cent of registered voters believed that he had; only fourteen per cent believed that he had not. Forty-three per cent of likely voters in the poll said that they would vote for Trump, suggesting that a significant portion of Trump’s supporters think that he’s lying, and do not care.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-and-the-truth-the-sexual-assault-allegations/amp