Sexual assault is a real thing, and sexual scandals have brought down many celebrities and powerful men.
Perhaps the most infamous of these are financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison, and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, now languishing in prison.
Donald Trump, who bragged that women allow famous men to “grab them by the pussy,” has had similar troubles, being found guilty of sexual assault in a civil trial and ordered to pay millions in damages to E. Jean Carroll.
But not all sexual assault accusations are true. False sexual assault allegations are a staple of political smear campaigns. During the 2020 presidential campaign a woman named Tara Reade, who’d worked for Joe Biden as a congressional aide in the 1990s, accused him of sexually assaulting her 27 years earlier (details here). She wasn’t credible, the smear failed, and Biden was elected president.
A few weeks before the 2024 election, an accusation appeared from nowhere against Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee. It began with an anonymous post on “X” (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk’s platform, with a “documented history of promoting fake stories,” alleging a former student of Walz claims the candidate “sexually abused him years ago when he was a teacher and football coach.”
The “X” account was quickly taken down, but not before the story went viral in the rightwing ecosphere. In Texas, a local Republican official ran with it, promising more revelations and a lawsuit (which, so far, haven’t materialized).
The alleged victim is a real person, an apparently homeless person in Hawaii who attended the school where Walz taught and coached, and therefore could have know him. But a purported video of this person is an obvious fake. (Read Mother Jones story here.)
Politico says the original “X” poster’s story is “riddled with inconsistencies,” and “formatting inconsistencies” indicate the poster’s email evidence is fake (read story here). Other fact-checking shows an alleged school board meeting that discussed sexual abuse allegations against Walz never happened and is a lie (see story here).
In short, the story comes from an anonymous source, there’s no evidence backing it, the timing is suspicious, and numerous red flags indicate it’s entirely fabricated. MSN rated the story as “false” (here), as did another fact check here.
There’s nothing new about political smears, or false accusations against candidates just before an election. This “October surprise” isn’t even a surprise. It’s so common, and such an integral part of the conservative playbook, it would be a surprise if rightwing dirty tricksters didn’t come up with something like this right before an election. Walz has, of course, been the subject of many other false stories; see a partial compendium here.
Why do rightwingers lie so much? There are multiple possible theories. One is they’re unpopular, so they resort to dirty tricks, because they can’t win elections by debating policies. Another reasonable explanation is they’re low-lifes with no morals, which seems a given from what they do. But at the end of the day, it really comes down to the fact some people will do anything for power, just as some people will do anything for money.
By the way, have you wondered what happened to Biden accuser Tara Reade? She defected to Russia, where she now lives as a naturalized Russian citizen.
Update (10/22/24): U.S. intelligence determined Russia “created and amplified” the smear against Walz (see story here).