Why 2020 Democrats Aren't Highlighting the Rape Allegation Against Trump

https://time.com/5613446/trump-rape-democrats-2020/

It’s been three days days since the writer E. Jean Carroll accused President Donald Trump of rape, but the allegation has caused barely a ripple in the 2020 campaign.

The nearly two dozen Democrats vying to unseat Trump have issued statementsexpressing the usual sentiments: shock, disgust, calls for investigations. Senator Elizabeth Warren may have captured the reaction best: “We know Donald Trump’s character. And it’s revealed every single day,” she told reporters last week. “There aren’t any real surprises. Just the details.”

In a cover story in New York Magazine, the longtime advice columnist wrote that she remembered Trump “forcing his fingers around my private area,” and recalled that he thrust “his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me.” She told two friends about the incident immediately afterwards, and both confirmed the incident to New York, although TIME could not independently confirm the allegations.

Trump has repeatedly denied the charges. He said in a statement that he “never met” Carroll, even though the author published a picture of them together at a party. On Monday, Trump again denied the allegation in an interview with The Hill. “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type,” he said. “Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?