President Donald Trump said Monday that a New York-based advice columnist who has accused him of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s is not his "type."
"I'll say it with great respect: Number one, she's not my type. Number two, it never happened," Trump told The Hill in an interview at the White House.
Writer E. Jean Carroll has claimed that a friendly encounter with Trump at Bergdorf Goodman in 1995 or 1996 turned violent when the real estate mogul pushed her up against a dressing room wall, unzipped his pants and forced himself on her. Carroll said that, in a "colossal struggle," she pushed him off and ran from the store.
President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order on improving price and quality transparency in healthcare at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2019. (AP PhotoCarolyn Kaster)
Trump told The Hill that Carroll is "totally lying" about the accusation, which he also denied earlier. "I know nothing about this woman. I know nothing about her," he said. "She is — it's just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that."
The allegation against Trump is included in Carroll's upcoming book about the "hideous men" the Elle magazine columnist says she has encountered throughout her life.
Carroll told CNN's Anderson Cooper later Monday that she's glad Trump doesn't consider her his type. "I love that," she said. "I'm so glad I am not his type."
Carroll said there were no attendants in the dressing room area at the time of the alleged assault and she did not file a report with the New York Police Department.
"I wanted to forget it," she said. "I thought A, my fault. B, I was stupid. C, I didn't think of it ... as rape. I thought of it as a violent incident. I thought of it as a fight."
During the 2016 presidential campaign, more than a dozen women accused Trump of sexual misconduct in earlier years. Trump has denied the allegations and said the women are lying.
The "not my type" remark isn't the first time Trump has disparaged an accuser.
In 2016, after a former magazine writer accused Trump of assaulting her in 2005, he responded: "She lies! Look at her, I don't think so."
And when another woman claimed Trump groped her on an airplane in the early 1980s, he said, "Believe me — she would not be my first choice."
JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.
The Houthis said they shot down the Predator with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.
The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province.
Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”
The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.
Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.
Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.
The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.
A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the U.S. and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, April. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
