Fox’s Hume Casts Doubt On Women Accusing Trump Of Sexual Assault In New York Times Report

Hume: “The Kinds Of Armrests That I'm Accustomed To Seeing In Those Airplanes Don't Mysteriously Disappear. … So It Could Be That The Trump Camp Has A Point About The Impracticability Of Such An Assault”

From the October 12 edition of Fox News’ On the Record:

Video file

BRIT HUME (HOST): Breaking news in the past hour. The New York Times is reporting that two women have come forward and said Donald Trump touched them inappropriately. In that New York Times article, Trump denied the allegations and the campaign is now just responding to that article. Fox’s Campaign Carl Cameron is in Lakeland, Florida, with the campaign. Carl, what's the campaign saying?

CARL CAMERON: Well, it’s a breaking story here, Brit. They just have released a statement, and it goes like this. “This entire article is fiction. And for The New York Times to launch a completely false, coordinated character assassination against Mr. Trump on a topic like this is dangerous. To reach back decades in an attempt to smear Mr. Trump trivializes sexual assault, and it sets a new low for where the media is willing to go in its efforts to determine this election. It is absurd to think that one of the most recognizable business leaders on the planet with a strong record of empowering women in his companies would do the things alleged in this story, and for this to only become public decades later in the final month of the campaign for president should say it all.” The statement continues to say, “Further, the Times story buries the pro-Clinton financial and social media activity on behalf of Hillary Clinton's candidacy, reinforcing that this truly is nothing more than a political attack. This is a sad day for the Times.” And that is from Jason Miller, the communications director for the Trump campaign. Brit?

HUME: Carl, is it anticipated that Mr. Trump himself will have anything to say about this or not?

CAMERON: Well, at some point he's going to have to. He almost daily, sometimes two or three times a day, calls the media collectively dishonest, and one of the things that they are likely to point out is that these two women allege that these gropings, if you will, happened in fairly public places, and one would have to envision that two people in first class of an airplane, one could be groped by the other and there might not be a commotion about that, or that one man would start kissing aggressively a woman outside of an elevator in a fairly trafficked building, would also go unnoticed. But it is 30 years ago, and we're given to believe that there are perhaps more of these types of allegations to come. And the fact that the press is digging in on them certainly gives rise to the Trump campaign's argument that the media is collectively against him when, in fact, it could simply be looking after the facts. But the Trump campaign knows that there's likely to be more of this. They've actually suggested that there would be attempts further to discredit his candidacy and that they should be seen through that political prism.

HUME: I'm already seeing questions from some viewers about how such a thing could happen in the first class cabin of an airplane when there's usually a rather large armrest between the two seats, people side by side. The woman in that -- in the tape said -- and it wasn't in the part that we aired -- said that the armrest between them had mysteriously disappeared. The kinds of armrests that I'm accustomed to seeing in those airplanes don't mysteriously disappear. The ones in coach you can roll back up. So it could be that the Trump camp has a point about the impracticability of such an assault.

CAMERON: And these types of he said, she said, and we don't want to be disrespectful to potential victims, do have the potential over years to get a little bit fuzzy. And frankly though, occasionally traveling around in the country chasing political candidates, I fly in first class. I couldn't vouch for what the armrests were like 25, 30 years ago myself.

HUME: Good point, Carl.

Related:

Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately

Previously:

After Caught Bragging About Sexual Assault, Man Will Talk With Different Man Facing Sexual Harassment Allegations