The NYPD and the Park Police were trying to kick us out last night at the end of our press conference in New York City. We’d run way into overtime. But I had one more thing to say. So I went to the microphone.
First, some context.
Behind me in Washington Square Park yesterday evening stood close to a dozen survivors of sexual abuse and alleged assault, including at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. Behind them sat the Trump-Epstein Bookmobile, 17,000 pounds of evidence that DEFIANCE.org and the Institute for Primary Facts have hauled from Dallas to Des Moines to New York so any American can read the 3.5 million pages the government was forced to release about these monstrous crimes.
We were joined by Robert De Niro, Rosie O’Donnell, Rosanna Arquette, and many others. De Niro had just told a crowd (in the neighborhood where he grew up) that one man was standing in the way of releasing the rest of the evidence — and doing it to cover his own ass. Americans of all political stripes now see this. It’s why surveys show the coverup has become one of the most important issues to voters ahead of the midterms, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans. In fact, 88 percent of likely midterm voters, including 83 percent of Republicans, prioritize candidates who will hold the powerful accountable including by releasing the files, and Epstein justice ranked above healthcare and affordability.
The survivors said harder things than any of us at the press conference. Marina Lacerda was 14 when she met Epstein. Lara Blume McGee was 20 — in her words, “an adult on paper, a target in practice” — and she told the crowd not to mistake her fellow survivors’ gratitude for restitution. “A library is not a courtroom. A bookshelf cannot issue a subpoena,” she said. And midway through the press conference, Chauntae Davies confessed to the cameras that her body rejects the unspeakable crimes that happened to her so violently that she sometimes ends up in the hospital when asked to speak about them. Then she asked a rhetorical question: “I look at the people leading this country and I ask, would I leave my daughter alone with them?”
So when the police started waving us off, I stepped forward to say what I’d been thinking all afternoon. There wasn’t time to properly close out the event, so I just said this: “A message to the men out there: if you believe in supporting women, then on Nov. 3, fucking prove it.”
Forgive my language. But that’s how I feel.
Election Day is less than a month away. As many of you know, I’ve spent most of this year arguing that it’s the most important anti-corruption election of our lifetimes. Thankfully, voters finally seem to be agreeing with me. A record 89 percent of Americans now say government corruption is widespread, and for supermajorities of them, the Epstein cover-up is the most visible example of it in the country. But yesterday brought something else to the surface, too. This election also happens to be a test of whether we believe what we say when we tell folks to “stand up for women.”
Ten years ago, a guy on a leaked tape bragged that he could grab women “by the pussy.” It wasn’t just locker room, jock-strap-slapping antics. He was boasting about how he got away with sexual assault. Indeed, more than a dozen women came forward by Election Day in 2016, and they were eventually joined by a former Trump aide, Alva Johnson, who stood in the park yesterday and said that her sisterhood of survivors “warned all of you.” They did. And America didn’t listen. A jury has since found Trump liable for sexual abuse in one of those cases.
While Trump is not on the ballot this year, he keeps telling his rallies to “pretend, please” that he is. We should really take him up on it. Even so, the men who Donald Trump has gathered around him inside the MAGA movement are on the ballot. Congressman Max Miller of Ohio, a former Trump aide, is running for a third term while the House Ethics Committee investigates whether he committed domestic violence. His ex-wife accused him of physical and emotional abuse (and abuse of their daughter), and his ex-girlfriend said he slapped her and shoved her against a wall. He denies all of it, and he’s still “Trump’s guy.”
Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking for a promotion to the U.S. Senate. Last week, he went on stage and defended the deal his office offered a man charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy. A child. Paxton had the perpetrator plead to two misdemeanors then gave him one day in jail. I don’t know how you feel about that, but I read that and want to vomit.
But the rot is so much bigger than Max or Ken. Last month, House Republican leaders sent members home ahead of schedule, with the chamber not due back until after Election Day. Why did they go home early… and in such a panic? In part, because a petition was gaining steam inside the chamber to force a vote on releasing the rest of the Epstein files. Survivors were burning down their phone lines. They were sweating. Terrified of angering their leader, Donald Trump, they balked and dismissed the legislative session and flew home. So brave.
These are the examples we are offering our sons and daughters. Our sons are watching what men get away with. And our daughters are watching to see whether anyone stops them. Does our country actually stand up for women? They’re right to wonder.
I’m going to say what might be uncomfortable for other men reading this. It’s easy to say the right thing when a survivor is standing in front of you. “This is terrible,” you say. “I’m appalled. We have to fight back.” But you know what? The real test happens in a voting booth with a curtain, where nobody is watching and when many of you have told yourself, well, I really care about tax cuts too and defense spending and regulations. And incredibly, you talk yourself into voting for a pervert.
That’s exactly what happened in 2016. A lot of men who would never say it out loud decided, in private, that a man on tape bragging about sexual assault was an acceptable price for whatever it was that they hoped to get from the sloppy, failed businessman who they elevated to the White House. We have a chance to redeem that grave civic mistake. The choice is the same one it was ten years ago. The question is, will we make it differently?
As you’re wondering, come see the Bookmobile. It’s free and open to the public, it’s now traveling all over the East Coast, and it rolls into West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 3, the day the country decides whether to tolerate rank corruption or throw out the politicians who protect predators.
If you’re a man who’s ever told a woman in your life that you stand with her, this is where it counts. Fucking prove it.
Your friend, in defiance,
P.S. DEFIANCE.org is a nonprofit, and every dollar from paid members goes toward fighting the kind of corruption you just read about. Every Wednesday at 5pm ET, we announce new efforts (like these, here!) to hold Trump accountable. Your membership is what makes it possible. If you haven’t yet, become a member today.
DEFIANCE DAILY
In case you missed it, last night’s episode of DEFIANCE Daily is below. Catch our next episode tonight at 5 pm ET.
TRACK THE TRUMP-EPSTEIN READING ROOM & BOOKMOBILE
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