Content warning: This video contains graphic descriptions of sexual harassment and assault.
Among the deluge of sexual assault accusations pouring in against powerful men around the country, it’s critical to remember that Donald Trump is among the accused. At least 16 women have charged Trump with sexual assault or harassment, and some of their allegations date back three decades. A documentary short from Brave New Films compiles heartbreaking statements from those 16 women, which taken together are “incredibly powerful, and damning.”
“As a society, we are finally beginning to hold powerful men to account for abusing their positions and influence to harass and abuse women. But this movement for accountability will ring hollow if it doesn’t apply to the most powerful, and public, sexual harasser in America — the president,” Brave New Films founder Robert Greenwald notes in a statement.
“In the post-Harvey Weinstein (or Roy Moore, Louis C.K., etc.) world we live in, we cannot ignore 16 women who over the course of decades in a broad range of situations encountered the same pattern of manipulation, misogyny, harassment and abuse,” Greenwald adds.
“We owe it to these women, and to all women, to hold President Trump to account.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
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