Latest sex accusation against Trump lands with a thud

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Latest sex accusation against Trump lands with a thud

2019-06-27 07:53 Last Updated At：08:00

Nearly a week after the latest sexual misconduct accusation against President Donald Trump, the story has largely landed with a thud.

Some see the muted response to author E. Jean Carroll's account of Trump assaulting her in a department store dressing room more than two decades ago as yet another example of the divisive Politics of Trump: Those who support him dismiss it as fake news. Those against him see it as confirmation of what they knew all along.

"Essentially, you're either for him or against him, and if you're for him, it doesn't matter what he's done," said Larry Sabato, who directs the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "It really is remarkable. He simply is exempt from the rules everyone else must obey."

It's a cycle that's been repeated before. After more than a dozen women came forward during Trump's 2016 campaign with allegations of sexual misconduct years earlier, Trump called them "liars" who sought to harm his campaign with "100-percent fabricated" stories. When the "Access Hollywood" tape emerged weeks before the election of him bragging about grabbing women by the genitals, he dismissed it as "locker room talk."

In the case of Carroll, a feature writer and longtime Elle advice columnist, her accusation was revealed in an excerpt to an upcoming book, leading Trump and others to cast her aside as an opportunist. Her book, "What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal," describes what she calls a lifetime of encounters with predatory men, starting with her early years as an Indiana cheerleader and pageant winner.

She said that Trump, in the mid-1990s, followed her into a dressing room after a chance encounter at the high-end New York department store Bergdorf Goodman and proceeded to pull down her tights and sexually assault her. Trump, in denying the account on Monday, said she's "not my type," a stunning remark from a U.S. president that briefly breathed life into the story.

But even ranking Democrats such as Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois were resigned to how it would all play out. "I wouldn't dismiss it," he told The Washington Post, "but let's be honest, he's going to deny it and little is going to come of it."

Lawyer Debra Katz, who represented Christine Blasey Ford in her Senate testimony on her alleged high school assault by then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, concurred.

"The electorate knew this about him. This is nothing new about his character or his behavior — at this point there have been, what, 13 credible accusers?" Katz said. "People have become inure to it. And it's disgraceful."

Carroll, who did not return messages left on her cell phone from The Associated Press this week, stopped short in various television interviews of calling what happened to her rape and described the experience as a "three-minute" ordeal that did not change her life. Carroll has said she doesn't plan to seek criminal charges and it appears the statute of limitations has run out.

"I'm a mature woman. I can handle it," she said on MSNBC. "My life has gone on. I'm a happy woman."

It also didn't help that Carroll's book excerpt dropped late last Friday and was largely drowned out by events of the week: the refugee crisis at the border, the U.S. brinkmanship with Iran and the regular onslaught of news about the environment, the economy and the 2020 election.

"We are trauma-fatigued by the volume of despairing issues seemingly beyond our personal control," said Carrie Goldberg, a New York lawyer who represents victims of sexual assault and revenge porn. "When a solution feels beyond grasp, it can be impossible to muster an appropriate emotional reaction."

Sen. Mazie Hirnono, a Hawaii Democrat, called it a sad day when a rape accusation against the president leaves the country numb.

"With this president you have the Iran situation going on, you have North Korea going on, you have the border crisis going on," she said. "So after a while you just practically throw up your hands."

AP writers Kali Robinson and AP video journalist Padmanda Rama contributed to this report from Washington.

Venice launches experiment to charge day-trippers an access fee in bid to combat over-tourism

2024-04-25 12:09 Last Updated At：13:42

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launches a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Signs advising arriving visitors of the new requirement for a test phase of 29 days through July have been erected outside the main train station and other points of arrival.

Some 200 stewards have been trained to politely walk anyone unaware of the fee through the process of downloading a QR code. A kiosk has been set up for those not equipped with a smartphone. Once past designated entry ports, officials will carry out random checks for QR codes that show the day-tripper tax has been paid or that the bearer is exempt.

Transgressors face fines 50 euros to 300 euros. The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, but officials say that pre-pandemic estimates ranging from 25 million to 30 million visitors a year — including day-trippers — are not reliable and that the pilot project also aims to come up with more exact figures to help better manage the phenomenon.

By contrast, registered visitors spending the night last year numbered 4.6 million, according to city figures, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. Its narrow alleyways are clogged with people and water taxis packed, making it difficult for residents to go about their business.

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism, and say more attention needs to be paid to boosting the resident population and services they need.

Venice last year passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park; you don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venturini said about 6,000 people had already paid to download the QR code, and officials expect paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach some 10,000.

More than 70,000 others have downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. People staying in hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should also get a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

The tourist official says interest in Venice's pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and cities abroad such as Barcelona and Amsterdam.