When Donald Trump dropped the "R" word (rape) during a Wednesday interview with Sean Hannity, it brought into sharp focus something the establishment media has avoided for decades: the continued allegations of sexual harassment and violence against former President Bill Clinton.

Predictably, the media scrambled into defensive mode by denying the accusation had any basis in fact. "The rape accusation is decades-old and discredited," ABC's Tom Llamas stated during Thursday's edition of World News Tonight, then went on to praise Hillary Clinton's responses to Trump's attacks.

"Clinton now saying plain and clear, Trump is not fit for the White House," he said, showing clips of Hillary describing Trump as "dangerous," "reckless" and "irresponsible."

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One of the rape accusations stems comes from Juanita Broaddrick, who said Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her in 1978 in a Little Rock, Arkansas, hotel room.

"I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. attorney general raped me and Hillary tried to silence me," Broaddrick tweeted in January. "I am now 73 … it never goes away."

Broaddrick's January 6 tweet came a month after Hillary Clinton had tweeted, "Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported."

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ABC isn't the only news agency who attempted to deny the rape allegations. CBS's Nancy Cordes referenced Trump's Hannity interview on the Evening News. "They were referring to a trio of women who say Bill Clinton made unwanted sexual advances in 80s and 90s. Mr. Clinton denies it. Two of the cases were plagued by factual discrepancies."

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Cordes also attacked Trump: "The topic of rape is murky territory for Trump, who was also once accused of rape by his ex-wife Ivana … a charge she later recanted."

Political commentator Ann Coulter slammed Llamas in a series of tweets: "Reporter Tom Llamas on ABC News Thurs re: Clinton/Juanita Broaddrick:"The rape accusation is decades old and discredited." Discredited HOW?!"

Salon Magazine's Scott Eric Kaufman, joining other progressive media outlets, mocked Coulter's multiple tweets on the dismissal of Broaddrick's case: "Still unsatisfied, [Coulter] began repeating herself like a broken Furby, spouting what seemed to be language, but was actually just the same input being shouted slightly differently. … She later attempted to explain herself by way of attacking others."

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Broaddrick, in an interview with Breitbart News, said: "I wish that they would use the same amount of energy to interview the hundreds of women that Bill Clinton has probably spoken bad words about and the many women that he has assaulted. … I think a person's own actions and what they do to women speaks much louder than a person's hearsay and words. He has absolutely no morals when it comes to women."

Broaddrick noted that no reporters from the Times have ever contacted her.

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Broaddrick responded to NBC's Andrea Mitchell on-air statement that Broaddrick's rape allegation, first televised by her own network in a sensational "Dateline" segment in 1999, had been "discredited."

"And if NBC now thinks my experience has been 'discredited,'" Broaddrick said in an interview conducted for WND, "why would Andrea Mitchell call me to ask me for any new information about my encounter with Hillary after the assault? And why wouldn't Andrea Mitchell have written her own news story explaining exactly how I've been discredited? Lisa Myers actually warned me about Andrea. Andrea is obviously mad at me for exposing her rudeness and bias when she called me this year. I think being a lapdog for Hillary Clinton discredits Andrea Mitchell and NBC as journalists!"