Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) on Monday said that columnist E. Jean Carroll’s recent allegation of sexual assault against President Trump is the latest proof of why impeachment proceedings need to begin against the president.
Carroll accused the president of raping her in a department store in the mid-1990s, as part of New York magazine article published Friday, saying that she didn’t come forward sooner because she was “a coward.”
“Thank you, E. Jean Carroll, for your courage in sharing your story. This is one of countless reasons we’re long overdue starting impeachment proceedings. Donald Trump is not fit to be president—he never was,” Moulton, who is running for the White House in 2020, said.{mosads}
At least 74 Democrats have called for an impeachment inquiry against the president.
Trump has denied the allegations. He told reporters Saturday “It is a totally false accusation.”
At least 15 women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against Trump.
The infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape unearthed during Trump’s presidential campaign showed the president himself boasting about assaulting women.
Carroll told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Friday she would not file a criminal complaint, adding it is “disrespectful to the women who are down on the border who are being raped around the clock down there without any protection.”
In her published accusation, Carroll describes a detailed violent situation where Trump pushed her up against the wall of a dressing room in Bergdorf Goodman and pulled her tights down.
Carroll writes that after Trump knocked her head against the wall, in shock, she tried to laugh it off.
“The next moment, still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat, he opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me,” she said.
Carroll says she then fought off Trump and ran out of the dressing room.