Hannity Defends Trump Over Sexual Assault Allegations By Suggesting It May Have Been “Welcome” By Victim

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Now that Sean Hannity’s defense of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s bragging of committing sexual assault as only “words” and not “actions” has collapsed with numerous women accusing Trump of assaulting them, Hannity is defending Trump by questioning the women’s stories and calling the reporting on them a “distraction.”

On October 12, several women came forward and reported that they had been sexually assaulted by Trump, triggering a firestorm of coverage that Hannity cannot avoid. Trump’s campaign responded to these accusations by seeking to undermine the women’s stories, insulting their looks, and attempting to intimidate the accusers by threatening legal action.

Hannity called these accusations against Trump a “distraction” from stories generated from stolen Democratic emails that have been released by WikiLeaks, and claimed the accusations against Trump are not nearly as bad as those against former President Bill Clinton. Hannity’s defense of Trump went even lower when he suggested that the alleged sexual assault of Jessica Leeds on an airplane may have been “welcome.”  From the October 13 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Sean Hannity Show:

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): There’s a very curious aspect to Ms. Leeds’ story which the Times didn’t bother to resolve. The Times did not include the detail in their print report, but in the video with Leeds that they released, she says that when Trump started groping her breast it didn't make her all that upset. What does that mean? And if he had stuck with the upper part of the body I might not have gotten that upset. Well, what does that mean? Does that mean that she was -- I don't know how to interpret that, I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth here. I'm just giving you what she said. Does that mean it was welcome, or unwelcome? We've got to be honest here, have an honest discussion, because they’re trying to destroy Donald Trump's chance of the presidency here.