Gorka: Weinstein Should Have ‘Obeyed’ ‘Pence’s Rules’ On Meeting Women

Deputy assistant to President Trump Sebastian Gorka talks with people in the Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2017, during a ceremony c... Deputy assistant to President Trump Sebastian Gorka talks with people in the Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2017, during a ceremony commemorating Israeli Independence Day. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) MORE LESS
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Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka suggested Tuesday that the dozens of women who have accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault could have avoided that abuse, if only Weinstein had refused to meet with them one-on-one.

Gorka, who now works for the pro-Trump MAGA Coalition super PAC, referred to “Pence’s rules.” Vice President Mike Pence reportedly avoids dining with women alone, aside from his wife. Evangelist Billy Graham popularized the rule to avoid “the appearance of compromise or suspicion.”

Weinstein’s alleged assault and harassment, the subject of rumors and unpublished reports for decades, were revealed in the New York Times and New Yorker in recent days, with multiple women coming out by name and accusing Weinstein of inappropriate sexual advances. New Yorker contributor Ronan Farrow reported that three women told him Weinstein raped them, including actor and director Asia Argento and former aspiring actor Lucia Evans, who did so in named interviews.

An unnamed female executive at Weinstein’s company even told the New Yorker that the mega-producer used assistants and others as “honeypots” — that is, individuals who sat in on the beginning of meetings only to leave women alone with Weinstein after a period of time.

Gorka’s former boss, President Donald Trump, has been accused by several women of sexual harassment and assault, often while surrounded by scores of other people: on a plane, outside the U.S. Open Tennis Championship, after a Ray Charles concert at Mar-a-Lago, and so on.

Five former Miss Teen USA beauty pageant contestants told BuzzFeed that Trump of walking into their dressing room while contestants as young as 15 were changing. Trump himself once bragged about going backstage at pageants he owned.

“I sort of get away with things like that,” he told Howard Stern in in 2006.

Still, powerful men appear to be following Gorka’s advice, at least according to what unnamed sources told the New York Times.

“Before, you might have said, ‘Of course I would do that, and I will especially do it for minorities, including women in Silicon Valley,’” an unnamed venture capitalist told the Times, referring to meeting alone with prospective business partners, recruits or mentees. “Now you cancel it because you have huge reputational risk all of a sudden.”

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Notable Replies

  1. If men are so completely incapable of controlling themselves around members of the opposite sex, why should they be trusted with anything more dangerous than a box of tissues? Leave it to conservatives to embrace a sexist view of guys to avoid tackling the problem of entrenched power structures and lack of oversight.

    (I also find it hysterical that Pence’s wife worries about what he’s doing with women, but that’s neither here nor there.)

  2. Gorka: Once a pig, always a pig. Avoid situations where your piggishness takes over. There is no such thing as transformation or spiritual, moral or ethical growth. Says everything you need to know about Gorka and those who think like him. Grotesque!

  3. Or, you know, he could have just not assaulted and molested people.

  4. How in the hell would male physicians of all specialties have female patients? Their wives would have to spend all day in the office, in the examining room? Accountants and financial advisers need their wives in the office to consult with a female client? The list of improbabilities is endless. The Taliban won’t let women travel unless in the company of their spouse or a male relative. And Republicans are worried about Sharia Law? Gorka wants Sharia Law here, now, as does Pence. Goddamn these people are stupid.

  5. Pompous fake nobody cares about says what now?

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