St. Louis

In response to the leak of a videotape in which Donald Trump brags about kissing and groping women, the GOP presidential nominee invited three women who have accused Bill Clinton of rape or sexual assault to attend Sunday night's debate.

The alleged victims have also accused Hillary Clinton, who says sexual assault victims " have the right to be believed," of playing a role in silencing them. So why doesn't Hillary Clinton believe these accusers? At a townhall event earlier this year, Clinton was asked that very question: "Would you say that to Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and/or Paula Jones? Should we believe them as well?"

"Well, I would say that everyone should be believed at first until they are disbelieved based on evidence?" Clinton replied.

But what evidence is there that Kathleen Willey wasn't sexually assaulted or that Juanita Broaddrick hadn't been raped by Bill Clinton? Following Sunday night's debate, I asked three official Clinton campaign surrogates in the "spin room" this question.

Missouri representative Emmanuel Cleaver didn't point to any specific evidence disproving the allegations, but he dismissed the accusations because Bill Clinton hasn't been convicted by a jury of any sexual crimes:

TWS: Secretary Clinton has said that victims of assault deserve to be believed unless evidence shows that their accusation was false. Are you aware of any evidence that shows Kathleen Willey or Juanita Broaddrick was not assaulted? CLEAVER: Look. The only thing I can look at, and the only thing you can look at frankly is whether or not a prosecutor filed charges against the person accused, and if so what did a jury of the peers render as a decision. And the answer is zero.

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said Trump's decision to invite the women to attend the debate was the "desperate act of a desperate man." The union boss similarly dismissed their accusations because Bill Clinton hasn't been prosecuted. "Well, look, they've been telling the same story for how many years? How many? Twenty?" Trumka asked. "Something should've happened by now. This isn't about those women. Those women were used tonight.

Missouri senator Claire McCaskill also said that Trump's invitation to the women "was desperate," but she was similarly unable to cite any evidence that shows Clinton's accusers are lying. When I asked McCaskill if she agrees with Hillary Clinton that alleged victims have a right to be believed, the senator walked away:

TWS: Secretary Clinton has said that everybody should be believed until they're disbelieved based on evidence. Is there any evidence that Kathleen Willey or Juanita Broaddrick made up their stories? MCCASKILL: Well, first of all, this doesn't have anything to do with Hillary Clinton's conduct. This is about Hillary Clinton. I think she has stayed true to her marriage through good and bad, and I think we should admire that. I don't think Donald Trump is one to be lecturing anybody about the vows of marriage. TWS: Do you agree with her sentiment that people have the right to be believed? MCCASKILL: [Walks away]

Although McCaskill said the accusations don't "have anything to do with Hillary Clinton's conduct," the Democratic presidential nominee has been accused by her husband's alleged victims of trying to silence them. As Andrew Ferguson recently wrote:

Willey spoke to reporters about Bill's grope. "With Hillary's go-ahead," [Clinton biographers] Gerth and Van Natta write, "the White House then released nine fawning letters that Willey had sent to Bill after the alleged incident." Reporters concluded, as they were meant to, that the letters disproved Willey's story, and it's been more or less buried ever since. In authorizing the release of Willey's private letters, Hillary was exploiting common assumptions about women that, in other contexts, she vigorously condemns as misogynist. The reasoning is familiar from the Anita Hill case and many others: If the survivor of a sexual assault speaks or writes kind or forgiving words about her assailant, then either (1) the assault didn't occur or (2) the victim agreed to it. The phrase "had it coming" may be too old-fashioned even for Hillary.

As Dylan Matthews of the liberal Vox.com has noted, there isn't any physical evidence proving or disproving Juanita Broaddrick's allegation that Bill Clinton forcibly raped her in 1978, but she had given contemporaneous accounts of the alleged attack to several people.

In different circumstances, Democratic politicians would likely argue that flippantly dismissing an accusation of sexual assault is deeply insensitive and outrageous. But for the time being, Clinton surrogates can't seem to be bothered with such considerations. They have a campaign to win.