Both Sides Claim Vindication After Vid Surfaces Showing Trump Kissing Accuser | Talking Points Memo

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21

I dispute the part I have bolded!!!

But yeah, nothing much to see here.

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22

Agreed, but I think @meri was being snarky.

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23

and sadly, I took the bait as well

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24

Yes but sexual assault did not occur. She was kissed on the cheek by a man she admired and appears to have fully requited the affection.

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25

He grabs her shoulders and is in complete control of where she leans.

I don’t think it’s anywhere near a clear-cut case of battery - too much is open to interpretation here, with people packed in on top of each other it’s hard to claim he violated her personal space.

What’s more interesting here is the way Trump assumes ownership of a black woman’s body - like of course it’s totally okay for him to grab her and make her perform an air kiss instead of a handshake. You just know that in a less public setting he would have aimed her head much lower.

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26

What’s normal about kissing a woman you don’t know? I agree that this isn’t battery, but it is downright creepy.

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27

That may well be, but us fathers of daughters have very low settings on the snark meter when it comes to sexual assault. I have no sense of humor that I know of in such discussions.

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28

The plaintiff’s case is over. The more interesting question to me is when it is appropriate to greet someone with a social kiss. I will do it with women I have known for a long time even in the business context but the rules of etiquette on “shake or kiss” have always been a little hazy to me. In Italy even the men kiss one another – on both cheeks – and it is expected…

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29

Yeah, this is nothing.

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30

It was stupid when they tried to pull this crap on Biden, and it’s stupid here too. Trump has actually assaulted some women. This kind of crap just muddies the waters and makes him look better than he is.

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31

This isn’t Italy.

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32

You may think that and I may think that. She doesn’t and as long as she doesn’t, I see no reason to disparage her for her fashion choices and use it as an excuse for a cheap laugh.

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33

You may think that and I may think that. She doesn’t and as long as she doesn’t, I see no reason to disparage her for her fashion choices and use it as an excuse for a cheap laugh.

Oh for God’s sake.

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34

No, for women’s sake actually.

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35

“Look at my African-American over there. No, not him, the other one. The woman.”

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36

I am the father of a daughter, and she was working to get the pussy grabber elected.

She was surprised to be treated in such a way by Trump in a way that Trump had admitted to acting throughout his entire life.

It was fine until it happened to her? Well, shit, I guess that explains why she’s vote Republican.

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37

Yes, but I am half Italian.

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38

As a woman who has been grabbed by the shoulders, pulled forward into close physical proximity, and kissed by a man in a position of authority (albeit one I admired) I will say that it is a very uncomfortable situation, and (especially in a group of observers) one to which women are conditioned to respond with agreeableness. Battery? Not sure. But unwelcome touching, embraces, physical control and movement of our bodies, and kissing all fall on a continuum of violation. Women, all people of all ages really, have the right to their own personal space. Trump violates that right.

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39

No, for women’s sake actually.

Newsflash: this story ain’t helping women one iota.

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@padfoot

Why don’t we just call it a day and start turning Japanese, and bow to one another?

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