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HuffPost Panty Patrol Story Really Skirts The Truth

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Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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A new, barely-sourced story in HuffPost is portraying Donald Trump as a sleazy guy who peered up womens’ skirts to check if they were wearing underwear.

Granted, he said in the Access Hollywood tape that he “grabs them [women] by the pussy” whenever he feels like it. He said that’s what you do when you’re a star.

But let’s just stick to facts, shall we?

The HuffPost story is by the Politics Editor Sam Stein, who is typically respectable in his reporting, and Deputy Politics Editor Mollie Reilly.

In this new attack, two witnesses dispute the central claims, but the liberal site published it anyway.

The gist of the piece: In 1996, a female health food entrepreneur claims that Trump “paraded women in front of their table, looked under women’s skirts, and commented on whether they were wearing underwear.” He didn’t do this to her, mind you. He did it to others in her midst.

Both Trump and his spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied the incident ever happened.

Despite the lack of sourcing — as in really anyone except for one woman — the HuffPost headline declares that Trump looked up models’ skirts and commented on their vaginas.

Let’s examine the details.

The headline… There’s no question here that Trump did this. Based on one woman who said this happened, this happened.

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The body of the piece…

  1. “In an interview on Thursday, Morgan confirmed that the dinner took place and even named the restaurant― Raoul’s in the SoHo neighborhood of New York. She also confirmed that Trump, Casablancas and several models were in attendance, but she denied any lewd actions on Trump’s part. ‘I don’t remember any of that kind of behavior,’ Morgan said. ‘But I have been known to dance on tables.'” 

2.  “The roommate Boyne called, Karen Beatrice, said she never heard from Boyne that night, although she did not deny that a dinner took place. Beatrice, who described Boyne as a publicity seeker, added that she once worked as a model and had met Trump as well. ‘He was nothing but gracious and charming,’ Beatrice recalled.”

3.   Another woman who was at the dinner said she couldn’t recall Trump acting in that fashion. However, she did confirm that the dinner took place, acknowledged that Boyne was there and suggested that women were climbing atop tables that evening.

Trump may well be a pervert. But the story is sloppy and poorly sourced.