Donald Trump Jr. blasted Whoopi Goldberg this week after she framed his concern for the rule of law and due process as the ramblings of a man who fears his sons are potential rapists.
The president’s son reminded millions on Twitter late Tuesday that Ms. Goldberg of ABC’s “The View” once defended director Roman Polanski as someone who didn’t “rape-rape” Samantha Gailey when she was 13, despite the fact the he was convicted of unlawful sex with a minor as part of a plea bargain.
Mr. Trump Jr.’s rhetorical broadside came after co-hosts on “The View” questioned his parenting skills in a #MeToo-inspired segment.
“You only worry about this for your child if you think your child has these tendencies,” Ms. Goldberg said of Mr. Trump Jr.’s Monday interview with DailyMailTV. “If you think your child is not someone who is assaulting people, it shouldn’t be a concern for you.”
Mr. Trump Jr. told the website that if activists set a precedent in which mere accusations — absent evidence — are enough to cost a man his job, then he worries for his sons’ future.
.@WhoopiGoldberg, instead of insinuating that my sons are potential future abusers, you might want to explain why you defended actual child rapist Roman Polanski?
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 2, 2018
“I don’t believe it was ’rape’ rape.” - Whoopi Goldberg on Roman Polanski
CC @TheView @ABC pic.twitter.com/vo2r9dinfc
“I’ve got boys, and I’ve got girls. And when I see what’s going on right now, it’s scary,” he said while admitting that such cultural changes would pose more of a threat to his sons.
His comments came against a political backdrop in which Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh — the president’s top pick for the U.S. Supreme Court — battles uncorroborated accusations by college professor Christine Blasey Ford of attempted rape as a teenager.
“@WhoopiGoldberg, instead of insinuating that my sons are potential future abusers, you might want to explain why you defended actual child rapist Roman Polanski? ’I don’t believe it was ’rape’ rape.’ — Whoopi Goldberg on Roman Polanski,” Mr. Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter.
Hollywood celebrities have defended Polanski for years. He fled the U.S. for Switzerland in 1978 after a striking a plea bargain to dismiss charges of molestation, giving drugs to a minor, rape and sodomy.
“I don’t like it when we’re passionate about something and we don’t have all the facts,” Ms. Goldberg said in September 2009, the media watchdog NewsBusters reported at the time. “We’re a different kind of society. We see things differently. The world sees 13 year olds and 14 year olds in the rest of Europe … not everybody agrees with the way we see things.”
Grand jury testimony in Polanski’s case included the victim saying she repeatedly told her attacker “no.”
“I was mostly just on and off saying, ’No, stop,’” she said. “But I wasn’t fighting really because I, you know, there was no one else there and I had no place to go.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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