Media colleagues speak out on behalf of Trump complainant
By
Liz Braun, Postmedia Network
First posted: Sunday, October 16, 2016 07:21 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, October 16, 2016 07:28 PM EDT
Donald Trump picked the wrong woman if it turns out sexual misconduct allegations involving Canadian journalist Natasha Stoynoff are true.
This is a woman whose sterling character is going to make the usual gutless victim-blaming impossible.
When someone is known to everyone she encounters for her honesty, integrity, work ethic and sincerity, it’s difficult to generate much of a smear campaign.
The Donald wants you to know that all the women who accuse him of being a sexual predator are liars, out for profit, determined to influence the election or otherwise shady.
But Natasha Stoynoff is not so easily dismissed — former colleagues from various media outlets, including People Magazine, are speaking out on her behalf.
Loudly.
Stoynoff says that while working as a reporter for People Magazine, Trump forced himself on her in 2005, when she was interviewing him for a feature on the one-year anniversary of his marriage to Melania Trump. Stoynoff wrote in an article — published on the magazine’s website — that Trump was giving her a tour of his Mar-a-Lago mansion when he said he wanted to show her a special room. He shut the door “and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat.”
Trump has emphatically dismissed allegations of abuse from Stoynoff and other women who have come forward.
Stoynoff said the encounter was interrupted by Trump’s butler. Afterward, she said she told a colleague at People, who encouraged her to disclose the incident to her editor, but she said she didn’t because she feared retaliation.
In denying Stoynoff’s allegations, Trump told a crowd last week: “When you looked at that horrible woman last night, you said, ‘I don’t think so.’”
He also tweeted: “Why didn’t the writer of the twelve year old article in People Magazine mention the ‘incident’ in her story. Because it did not happen!”
Stoynoff worked at the Toronto Sun and the Toronto Star in the 1990s before moving to the U.S. and working for Time and People magazines. She worked in the entertainment department at the Sun, and we had many intense conversations about life, love, work, writing, ethics and all the rest of it.
What my colleagues and I know for certain is that Stoynoff is one of the good guys.
She is sunny and smart and open to the world, and her B.S. level is always set to zero.
In addition to reporting the allegations to a colleague at People Magazine, Stoynoff made sure she was taken off the Trump “beat” so she never had to interview the guy again.
And why didn’t she shout it from the rooftops?
Stoynoff put into words (for People) what so many sexual assault victims struggle to articulate:
“Like many women, I was ashamed and blamed myself for his transgression. I minimized it (“It’s not like he raped me ...”); I doubted my recollection and my reaction. I was afraid that a famous, powerful, wealthy man could and would discredit and destroy me, especially if I got his coveted People feature killed.
“I just want to forget it ever happened ...”
Got that? Remember those points for future reference: I blamed myself; I doubted my own recollections; I was afraid that powerful guy could wreck my life if I said anything; I just wanted to forget about it.
If we were a betting person, we’d bet that once it is 100% sure that Trump will lose this election, the horror stories are going to come flooding out.
Until then, few are brave enough to report another person’s misdeeds if the villain of the piece is potentially going to become a world leader — and potentially could make your life a living hell.
Most people keep their mouths shut when dealing with someone they believe is an underhanded bully, a cheat at business and marriage, a racist, ageist, misogynistic blowhard, a liar and an alleged sexual predator.
Luckily, Natasha Stoynoff is not most people.
— With files from the Associated Press and the Washington Post
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North Carolina police: GOP office damaged by fire, graffiti
Jonathan Drew, The Associated Press
First posted: Sunday, October 16, 2016 04:33 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, October 17, 2016 01:02 AM EDT
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — A local Republican Party office in North Carolina was torched by a flammable device and someone spray-painted an anti-GOP slogan referring to “Nazi Republicans” on a nearby wall, authorities said Sunday.
A bottle filled with flammable liquid was thrown through the window of the Orange County Republican Party headquarters overnight, according to a news release from the town of Hillsborough. The substance ignited and damaged the interior before burning out. No one was injured.
On Sunday afternoon, the walls of the multi-room office were covered in black char, and a couch against one wall had been burned down to its springs. Shattered glass covered the floor, and melted campaign yard signs showed warped lettering.
The news release from authorities said an adjacent building was spray-painted with the words: “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.” The graffiti had been covered in paint by late afternoon.
Another business owner discovered the damage Sunday morning. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is working with local investigators.
State GOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse said people sometimes work after-hours, and he felt lucky that no one was there at the time. He said the bottle appeared to have landed on or near the couch where volunteers sometimes take naps.
“They are working around the clock. It is a miracle that nobody was killed,” he said in an interview, calling the fire “political terrorism.”
He said Republican offices around the state were re-examining their security.
The violent act in the key battleground state was condemned by public figures across the political spectrum.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president said on Twitter that the attack “is horrific and unacceptable. Very grateful that everyone is safe.”
Republican nominee Donald Trump blamed the act on Democrats in a Tweet and also he encouraged local Republicans, saying: “With you all the way, will never forget. Now we have to win. Proud of you all!”
At a news conference, Woodhouse urged Republicans to respond peacefully by turning out to vote in November. He said he’d received messages of support from Democrats.
Orange County GOP chairman Daniel Ashley told reporters that no one had previously made violent threats against the office several miles from the town’s historic square. The GOP office is several doors down from a shuttered ice rink in what was once a frontier-themed amusement park that is now a retail complex known as The Shops at Daniel Boone.
Tom Stevens, mayor of the town about 40 miles northwest of Raleigh, said that it was fortunate the fire didn’t burn the office and other adjacent buildings that are decades old to the ground.
Stevens, a Democrat, said the act doesn’t represent the character of Orange County, which also includes much of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina campus. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 3-1 margin in the county that picked President Barack Obama by a lopsided margin in the 2012 election.
“I’d like to believe we aspire to respect hearing differing views,” Stevens said in an interview. “This is very troubling.”
Stevens said he wasn’t aware of any leads on suspects.
A burnt couch is shown next to warped campaign signs at the Orange County Republican Headquarters in Hillsborough, NC on Sunday, Oct. 16 2016. Someone threw flammable liquid inside a bottle through a window overnight and someone spray-painted an anti-GOP slogan referring to "Nazi Republicans" on a nearby wall, authorities said Sunday. State GOP director Dallas Woodhouse said no one was injured. (AP Photo/Jonathan Drew)
North Carolina police: GOP office damaged by fire, graffiti | World | News | Tor