CNN's New Day featured a lengthy interview with Alysin Camerota and E. Jean Carroll, the author who describes being raped by Donald Trump in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room years ago.
"This is beyond sexual -- legally, he raped you." Camerota told the author.
"I don't use the word. I have difficulty with the word," she said.
"Because you think that -- "
"I think it was a fight. You know?"
"I understand. But you see it as a fight and you don't want to be seen as a victim and I totally get that."
"I don't want to be seen as a victim because I quickly went past it. It was a very, very brief episode of my life. Very brief. I am not faced with sexual violence every single day like many women around the world. and so, yes, I'm very careful with that word."
"I understand."
"You will use it."
"Here's the situation. I understand that you don't want this to define you, of course. who would? But I'm saying legally, it was rape. It's unambiguous. What you describe in the book, it was rape. and that actually goes further than the 15 women who came forward during the campaign who say -- they described situations very similar to what you experienced. Him getting them into a room, him pinning them against a wall, him forcing a kiss on them," Camerota said.
"But yours actually goes further in terms of being legally raped. That's what it was. So when you heard Donald Trump in the infamous Access Hollywood tape foreshadow this or at least explain himself to Billy Bush. Let's remind people. Listen to this."
"What did you think when you heard that?" Camerota asked.
"It knocked me back. I felt relief and that's right. That's right."
"You felt relief that that was confirmation, basically, you felt. So as you know, since you came forward, the president has denied all of this. Let me read to you his statement. He says on Friday, 'I've never met this person in my life. She's trying to sell a new book. That should indicate her motivation. It should be held in the fiction section. No video, no reports, no sales attendants around. I would like to thank Bergdorf Goodman for confirming they have no video footage.' Your response?"
"What's the title of this book? 'What Do We Need Men For?' I never mention Donald Trump in the description of the book, on Amazon, you don't see it. It was not about selling a book about Donald Trump. By the way, men never get -- male authors never get this question."
"About are you just trying to sell books?"
"Yes, of course."
"But beyond the bookselling part, he denied that it happened. He also denies he met you although there is a picture of you two having met. I think that what he has said was, that was in passing. There's photographic evidence of you having met Donald Trump. But he is denying that."
"Well, that is his -- with all the 15 women or 16 who have come forward, it's the same. He denies it. He turns it around. He attacks. And he threatens. That is his -- and then everybody forgets it and then the next woman comes along and I am sick of it. Alisyn, I am sick of it. Think how many women have come forward. Nothing happens. the only thing we can do is sit with you and tell our stories so that we empower other women to come forward and tell their stories."
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