Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
On October 12th, 2016, at 12:00PM ET, campus leaders across Pennsylvania convened in an online press call, a kind of virtual press conference, to denounce Republican candidate Donald Trump and voice their support of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The call was facilitated by Pennsylvania for Hillary.
The press call was in response to a 2005 video obtained and recently released by The Washington Post in which the Republican candidate details past sexual advances towards women in addition to his past denigrating comments about women.
“I wasn’t shocked in the least,” said Chelcie Alcorn, Founder of the University of Pittsburgh Students for Hillary. “I know this is the kind of man Donald Trump is,” she said.
Alexandra Necolettos, a student at Penn State University, voiced her concerns regarding the Trump campaign’s rationalization of his remarks. “He isn’t just saying these things; he means these things,” she said.
“This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today,” Trump had said regarding media coverage of recent video leak.
Sarah Zandi, a sexual assault prevention activist and University of Pennsylvania student, echoes the concerns voiced by Necolettos. “The most disturbing this about Donald Trump’s Hot Mic video is his campaign’s response to it. They justify and normalize this behavior,” she said.
Jasmine Rashid ‘18, Co-Founder of the Swarthmore Women of Color Collective, went on to discuss the Trump campaign’s assertion that coverage of these comments is a distraction from the policy at hand. “To me that signals a very real disconnect between how people think a culture of sexual assault is actually reproduced,” she said.
“For women in this country, rape culture is our culture, period,” Zandi said.
The call was then open to questions, and campus leaders were asked to comment on Republican candidates who have criticized Trump but have not yet un-endorsed him. “These people who are trying to stay on the middle ground, they are absolutely complicit in this rhetoric and completely complicit in this culture,” Zandi responded.
“This is not the kind of person we need leading the free world,” said Alcorn. Zandi agreed and voiced her support of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “Everything Hillary has ever done […] tells me that she’s going to help survivors make their way back home,” she said.
Featured image courtesy of NPR.
Color me completely unsurprised. The walking trash fire that is Donald Trump is not only a racist sexist fascist idiot, but also a reeking pustule on the face of humanity that brags about committing sexual assault and talks about how he’d screw his own daughter. Women, to the lumpy sack of human waste that is Donald Trump, do not exist as people, but rather objects for the open sore on humanity’s ass that is Donald Trump to perv on and use as the slow-burning underground coal fire that is Donald Trump desires.
Confronted with the odious mound of bigotry and petty asininity that is Donald Trump, is it really any surprise that people are horrified and disgusted by him? Is it even productive to get shocked at the awfulness of the stinking mound of perverted racist offal that is Donald Trump anymore? Maybe we should stop getting horrified by him, since if we’re not ALREADY horrified there’s something deeply wrong with us, and get to work on making sure that Hillary wins in November.
Rape culture is personified by Hillary Clinton enabling her husband’s many affairs. She denigrated his victims and did nothing to help them. Including when he had an affair with a 22 year old intern, and he lied about it.
OMG here we go again. Where is the proof that Hillary Clinton denigrated these women in Bill Clinton’s past? SHOW ME THE PROOF. And why does this keep coming up — Bill Clinton’s past has nothing to do with Hillary. After last night’s debate it’s hard for me to understand why anybody would vote for him. Hillary certainly showed her presidential side last night. She’s a winner!!!
I kinda like the comment from Ian G that Trump is a walking trash fire. I haven’t heard this one, but I like it.