Explosive Guy-arrhea
Sexual harassment and assault are regarded very differently across the two parties. Here's why.
I’ve ended up in a lot of different conversations about politics, parties, and gender lately — hardly surprising given the news. Many of these conversations focus on just what the two parties find disqualifying in their candidates, and whether the electorate agrees. I wanted to offer some thoughts and a dash of data about what’s going on.
On the most central question to all this, I think it’s safe to say that, if Graham Platner were the Republican nominee for Senate in some state and the New York Times ran a story with credible testimony that he’d raped someone, no, he would not have been forced to withdraw from the contest. And we can deduce this from a considerable number of recent examples, including:
Roy Moore, who was the GOP’s nominee for Alabama’s Senate seat in 2017 when accusations of his sexual misconduct toward young girls came forward. A few prominent Republicans called on him to withdraw, but President Trump and the Alabama GOP stood behind him, and the RNC briefly withheld its support but then restored it.
Pete Hegseth, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, but was later appointed by Trump to serve as Secretary of Defense. The Senate approved his nomination on a 51-50 vote, with Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins the only Republicans voting against him.
Robert Kennedy, Jr., who was accused of sexual assault in a 2024 Vanity Fair article but whom Trump nominated for Secretary of Health and Human Services. McConnell was the only Republican senator opposing him.
Donald Trump himself, who was the Republican nominee for president in 2016 when the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump bragged about committing sexual assault, was publicly released. Many Republicans initially walked back their support for Trump but then re-embraced him after a few days.
Democrats, for their part, are hardly above reproach, but in many recent incidences of sexual harassment or assault accusations — including those of Al Franken, Eric Swalwell, Tony Gonzales, and Graham Platner — the party has quickly abandoned support for the person and pressured them into withdrawal or retirement.
Okay, so why the differences?
