These attempts at discrediting the allegations are aided by members of the media who have questioned the timing, suggesting that the allegations might amount to an “oppo dump” by Hillary Clinton’s campaign or her allies. Here’s a smattering:

In last hour:



- NYT report on the 2 women

- CBS report on 10-yr-old girl

- Palm Beach Post report woman saying Trump groped her. — Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) October 12, 2016

New groping, kissing allegations in NYT and People fr years ago has Trump playing defense on multiple fronts. Fair to question the timing? — HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) October 13, 2016

Joe Scarborough asked about the timing on his show, too, arguing it was an oppo drop, since the stories were 30 years old. That read on the situation was too cynical and horse-race focused even for Mark Halperin.

Newt Gingrich, rather than deny Jessica Leeds’s account, in which she said Trump touched her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt on a flight in the 1970s, referred to her experience as merely “a bad airplane flight” and asked why the Times had to reach back 30 years for an allegation.

All of the women who have come forward have cited the same, plausible, answer, for why came forward now, which is that they were outraged by Trump’s insistence, during Sunday’s debate that he had never sexually assaulted any women (offered only under duress, when Anderson Cooper asked him the question three times). But as far as the allegations’ veracity, it’s irrelevant whether the stories represent an oppo dump—although the range of accusations, geographically, temporally, and in news outlets big and small, would militate against all of the stories being coordinated. It matters whether they are true and relevant to the campaign. The timing question is a distraction.

Conservative radio host Bill Mitchell, whose name has become a byword for blind defense of Trump, tweeted, “What the hell is it with Liberals that even after travesties like the Duke Rape Case, we MUST accept the word of any and all accusers?”

The Duke lacrosse analogy is spurious. (I would know; I covered the entire case.) This isn’t a case of a single accuser making questionable accusations. With Trump, there are just multiple women, across a range of years, making allegations. But plenty of other women have told their stories in recent months and years, like Jill Harth, who briefly worked with Trump on pageants and who in April alleged that Trump had groped her at dinner and sexually assaulted her in his daughter’s bedroom.

You don’t have to take their word for it, either: You can take Trump’s word for it.

Leeds says that Trump tried put his hand up her skirt. Newt Gingrich thinks the allegation is spurious. Then again, Trump bragged about doing just that in the tape released on Friday: “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”