6 new york | july 8–21, 2019
LSend correspondence to [email protected].
Or go to nymag.com to respond to individual stories.28 new york | june 24–july 7, 2019My first rich boy pulled down my underpants. My last rich boy pulled down my tights. My first rich boy—I had fixed my eyes on
his face long enough to know—was beautiful, w ith dark gray eyes and long golden-brown hair across his forehead. I don’t know
what he grew up to be. My last rich boy was blond. He grew up to be the president of the United States.
grandfather. He was raped by his The first rich boy’s name was James. He was raped by his uncles. He was beaten by his father.
My mother told me the stories much later. When James was 6, he was taken away from his father and given to a rich couple, Arthur
and Evelyn. Arthur and Evelyn were best friends with my parents, Tom and Betty. One day my parents gave a party. Everyone brought
their kids. Arthur and Evelyn drove up from Indianapolis with James to the redbrick schoolhouse where we lived, deep in the hills
north of Fort Wayne. As the parents drank cocktails in our big yard with the scent of the blooming wads of cash infusing every inch ofPhotograph by Amanda DemmeBy E. J E A N C A R R O L LHideous
Men
Donald Trump assaulted me in a Bergdorf Goodman not alone on the list of awful men in my life. dressing room 23 years ago. But he’sJune 24–July 7, 2019
®
what I was This is
23 years wearing
ago whenDonald
attacked Tr ump
me in a
Goodman Bergdorf
dressing room.
My List of
Hideous MenBy E. Jean
CarrollComments
1 E. Jean Carroll’s history of the
“Hideous Men” she has encountered
over the decades, and her allegation that
President Trump attacked her, launched a
wrenching, multifaceted national conversa-
tion. The cover story, which was published
online Friday, June 21, had been read
by over a million people by the time the
print magazine arrived in mailboxes. Her
account was widely discussed: “That
[Carroll] can write a sentence like ‘my false
eyelashes spring open like parasols’ while
contemplating the depravity of men is awe-
inspiring,” wrote Naureen Khan. Meredith
Haggerty added, “This is so much worse
than I imagined from the headline and it’s
not like I walk around thinking the presi-
dent is a good man. E. Jean Carroll is in-
credibly brave.” Carroll’s article was adapted
from her memoir, What Do We Need Men
For?, and many readers praised the skill
with which she constructed it. Joshua Ben-
ton, director of the Nieman Journalism
Lab, called it “one of the best pieces of mag-
azine writing I have read in a very long
time.” For Slate, Lili Loofbourow wrote,
“Carroll’s essay risks a great deal ... to ac-
knowledge the blundering human com-
plexity of the situation ... The essay is doing
things a news report can’t and wouldn’t.”
Reflecting on her own feelings of becoming
inured to allegations of misconduct against
the president, Jia Tolentino wrote for The
New Yorker: “He said that he grabbed wom-
en by the pussy, and many women— twenty-
two, so far— explained that, yes, he did that,
or something like it, to them. Carroll’s
essay— exceptional, devastating, decades
in the making—has made me consider how
hard it is to understand right away that
you’ve been exhausted into submission,
especially when submission and endur-
ance feel inextricable. It’s reminded me of
how high I’ve let my own hideosity bar get
lately, and also of the fact that no one can
lower it again but me.”2 Hours after the story was published,
President Trump released a statement
that read: “I’ve never met this person in my
life.” (New York had published a picture of
the two of them together.) “She is trying to
sell a new book—that should indicate her
motivation. It should be sold in the fiction
section. Shame on those who make up false
stories of assault to try to get publicity for
themselves, or sell a book, or carry out a
political agenda ... It’s just as bad for people
to believe it, particularly when there is
zero evidence. Worse still for a dying pub-
lication to try to prop itself up by peddling
fake news—it’s an epidemic.” In an inter-
view with The Hill a few days later, he
elaborated: “I’ll say it with great respect:
Number one, she’s not my type. Number
two, it never happened. It never hap-
pened, okay?” Responses from Democrat-
ic politicians ranged from outrage—“This
President needs to be impeached,” Alexan-
dria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted—to resigna-
tion: Elizabeth Warren told reporters,
“We know Donald Trump’s character, and
it’s revealed every single day. There aren’t
any real surprises here, just the details.”
When asked about a possible investigation
into the allegations, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi demurred: “I respect that, but I don’t
know what Congress’s role would be in
this ... I haven’t paid that much attention to
it.” In the Washington Post, George Conway
railed against Republicans who voiced sup-
port for Bill Clinton accuser Juanita Broad-
drick while casting doubt on E. Jean Car-
roll’s claim: “Trump called Broaddrick‘courageous,’ and if Broaddrick was cou-
rageous, then certainly Carroll is as well.
For Carroll’s story is at least as compelling
as Broaddrick’s—if not more so ... Repub-
licans or conservatives who promoted
Broad drick’s charges would be hypocriti-
cal if they fail to champion Carroll and
condemn Trump.” In the days following
the story’s publication, USA Today
reported, the Rape, Abuse & Incest
National Network’s sexual-assault hot-
line saw a 53 percent spike in calls.3 The media coverage of Carroll’s
account—and the extent to which
some outlets appeared to downplay it—
itself became an extended conversation
in the national press. On Reliable Sources,
Brian Stelter posited that media fatigue was
to blame. L.A. Times deputy managing edi-
tor Shani Hilton agreed: “By the end of the
day on Friday it really felt like Here’s another
allegation in a long line.” Gabriel Snyder,
writing in the Columbia Journalism
Review, suggested that the Times’ initial
coverage of Carroll’s account was colored
by its competitive instincts. “The Times
can be reluctant to tout other outlets’ big
scoops; an apex predator in that ecosys-
tem, its coverage decisions can, by exten-
sion, influence a story’s reach.” Times
executive editor Dean Baquet responded to
critics and admitted the paper had been
“overly cautious” in its handling of the story.
Later in the week, the Times published the
first on-the-record interview with the two
women Carroll told about the attack at the
time, author Lisa Birnbach and TV host
Carol Martin, and featured their account on
its podcast The Daily.sorry, we lied. This page is all about Trump.