President Donald Trump was reportedly furious when U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that all women sharing allegations of sexual misconduct should be heard ― even if those allegations are against Trump.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the president “fumed” when he heard about Haley’s Sunday morning interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” Two people who are close to Trump relayed his reaction to the AP anonymously because they weren’t authorized to share the private conversations.
During Sunday’s interview, Haley said she was “proud” of the “strength” and “courage” many women have shown when coming forward with accusations of sexual misconduct in the past few months.
“Women who accuse anyone should be heard. They should be heard and they should be dealt with, and I think we heard them prior to the election,” Haley said when asked about Trump’s accusers. “I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way ― they have every right to speak up.”
According to The Washington Post, some Republicans are nervous about what these revived accusations could do to Trump’s presidency.
“Some outside Republicans close to the president said they are increasingly uneasy about his ability to withstand a revived spotlight on his behavior toward women amid the dramatic attitude shift happening nationwide in response to accusations of sexual misconduct against men from Hollywood to Capitol Hill,” the Post reports. “A number of Trump associates are also wary of the potential political costs if the president goes on a sustained attack against his accusers.”
As of now, 21 women have accused the president of some form of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault. Four of Trump’s accusers held a press conference on Monday urging Congress to open an investigation into the allegations.
“Unless Congress gets the courage to act as a body and hold him accountable, then nothing is going to happen,” Jessica Leeds, who accused Trump of groping her on an airplane over 30 years ago, told NBC News’ Megyn Kelly on Monday.
Trump has repeatedly denied all of the accusations, most recently tweeting that women he didn’t know were making “false accusations.” In October, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that all of Trump’s accusers were lying.
