A White House spokeswoman said Friday that all of the women who have accused President Donald Trump of sexual harassment are lying, echoing the president’s statement last week that the accusations are “fake news.”
Sarah Sanders took a question during the White House briefing from a television reporter asking about the White House’s official position on charges by at least 16 women that the president has engaged in inappropriate behavior.
“Is it the official White House position that all of these women are lying?” asked Jacqueline Alemany of CBS News.
“Yeah, we’ve been clear on that from the beginning, and the president’s spoken on it,” Sanders answered.
The reporter asked the question after alluding to a number of other prominent men in the media who have lately been accused of harassment, such as movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, television host Bill O'Reilly, and journalist Mark Halperin, all of whom have lost jobs over the matter.
Last week Trump was queried over the accusations, in particular a subpoena issued by lawyers for a former contestant on his television show, Summer Zervos, who accused him of groping and kissing her during the taping of the show.
The president replied, “All I can say is, it's totally fake news. It's just fake. It's fake. It's made-up stuff, and it's disgraceful, what happens, but ... that happens in the world of politics.”
A year ago at a campaign rally, then-candidate Trump responded to accusations of sexual harassment by calling himself “a victim of one of the great political smear campaigns in the history of our country.”
