What’s an unpopular, incompetent, inauthentic candidate who was undemocratically installed at the top of a major party ticket to do when the polls start moving away from her two weeks before the election, and she has no vision or really anything of substance to offer voters? Answer: She searches for dirt on her opponent, which is impossible to either prove or disprove, and uses it to smear him. She then turns to her cronies in the media to unleash a nonstop parade of highly publicized allegations against him.
Just when we thought that recycled slanders from former President Donald Trump’s one-time chief of staff and two anonymous accusers were all Vice President Kamala Harris had to work with, a woman who worked as a professional model in the 1990s comes forward to accuse him of “groping and sexually touching” her. This woman claims the incident occurred shortly after the two were introduced by the late Jeffrey Epstein, whom she was dating at the time.
According to the Guardian, the British tabloid that reported the story on Wednesday, former model Stacey Williams:
Revealed details about the alleged encounter on a call on Monday organized by a group called Survivors for Kamala, which supports Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The Zoom call featured actor Ashley Judd and law professor and academic Anita Hill, among others. Survivors for Kamala also took out an ad in the New York Times this week, signed by 200 survivors of sexual and gender violence, which was meant to serve as a reminder that Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse in a court.
Like famous accusers E. Jean Carroll and Christine Blasey Ford, Williams, now 56, can’t quite pinpoint when the alleged incident occurred, only that it happened at Trump Tower in the late winter or early spring of 1993. Apparently, this type of attack affects one’s memory.
Williams said Epstein introduced her to Trump at a 1992 Christmas Party. Then, during a walk with Epstein months later, he suggested they stop at Trump Tower to visit Trump. She claims:
Moments after they arrived … Trump greeted Williams, pulled her toward him and started groping her. She said he put his hands “all over my breasts” as well as her waist and her buttocks. She said she froze because she was “deeply confused” about what was happening. At the same time, she said she believed she saw the two men smiling at each other.
She told the Guardian she believed it was a “twisted game” between the two men.
Williams claimed that “Trump sent her agent a postcard via courier later in 1993, an aerial view of Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach residence and resort. She shared it with the Guardian. In his handwriting – using what appears to be his usual black Sharpie – he wrote: ‘Stacey – Your home away from home. Love Donald.'”
The Guardian reports they spoke to two friends whom Williams had told about the alleged incident. The first, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “Williams told her about the alleged incident in 2005 or 2006 during a conversation in which Williams mentioned knowing Epstein, and how he had introduced her to Trump. The friend specifically remembers Williams telling her that she had been groped by Trump.”
Another friend, Ally Gutwillinger, said Williams told her about the alleged incident in 2015, shortly after Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. “I went to her house sometime in that week and I saw a postcard of Mar-a-Lago and I said: ‘What’s this?’ and she said ‘Turn it over,’” Gutwillinger said. “She said something like: ‘He’s vile, he groped me in Trump Tower.’”
An anonymous attorney who goes by the handle @Techno_Fog on X recalled that the author of this story, Guardian investigative correspondent Lucy Osborne, reported a nearly identical story in September 2020. He wrote, “We saw this in 2020. Same reporters, same publication. Same allegations, same timing, same opponent – but different elections. It seems the Democrats have a preferred venue to run their October surprise. And a reporter willing to do their bidding.”
Unfortunately for the Harris campaign, financial news website ZeroHedge has already identified a major flaw in William’s story. She claims she was on a walk with Epstein from his brownstone on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This, they said, was “strange” because Epstein didn’t move into the property until 1996. Indeed, it does appear to be a game changer.
Fox News media reporter Joe Concha pointed out this story “was pitched to multiple reporters — even some very friendly to Kamala — and only a British tabloid took the bait.”
He noted, “This is laughable. The panic is real.”
Other conservative writers reacted to the story:
Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary for Donald Trump’s campaign, issued a statement which read in part: “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false. It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign.”
Of course, Leavitt is right. But will voters believe the latest allegations? Or, after the Russian collusion hoax, two phony impeachments, two federal indictments, one state indictment and two civil lawsuits in New York, a state indictment in Georgia, efforts to remove Trump’s name from ballots in Colorado and other blue states, two assassination attempts, and so much more, have the Democrats lost their credibility with voters? My money’s on the latter.
This looks like a last-ditch effort by a candidate who is losing strength in the polls at the worst possible time. The media-manufactured joy and good vibes that defined the first two months of the Harris campaign have deserted them. And Democrats are left with a weak, ineffective standard bearer whose lead over Trump in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls (as of Thursday morning) has narrowed to 0.2%. To put that in perspective, at this point in 2016, Hillary Clinton led Trump by 5.5% and lost. President Joe Biden led Trump by 8.1% on this date in 2020 and barely won.
What we’re seeing is election interference by a desperate, flailing campaign that has no positive closing message for the American people.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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